Purpose: Current guidelines recommend vaccination at least 2 weeks before chemotherapy initiation to optimize the immune response despite limited evidence. Our previous study indicated no differences in short-term immune response for the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) according to the vaccination timing. This study aims to investigate the long-term efficacy of PCV13 and clinical factors associated with the respective antibody response. Materials and Methods: Patients with gastric or colorectal cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled and divided into two groups: vaccinated 2 weeks before chemotherapy (arm A) and vaccinated concurrently with chemotherapy (arm B). Serum samples were collected before vaccination and in one month, 3 years, and 5 years. Immune responses were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and multiplex opsonophagocytosis assay. Results: Including 63 patients, both groups showed an initial increase in the geometric mean titers of opsonophagocytic activity and the geometric mean concentrations of serotype-specific IgG levels after one month, followed by a decline at 3 and 5 years, particularly for serotypes 1, 14, 18C, and 19A. Despite the decline, global protection was maintained for 5 years, although global response decreased. The two arms did not show significant differences in immunogenicity nor in factors such as vaccination timing, age, cancer type, or chemotherapy regimen. Conclusion Vaccination timing is not a significant factor for the immunogenicity of PCV13 in cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. Global protection against pneumococcal infection was sustained for > 5 years, and global response remained in over half of patients.

This study was conducted to investigate potential differences in vaccine efficacy between patients undergoing palliative chemotherapy and receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. Additionally, the study proved the influence of vaccination timing on vaccine efficacy during active chemotherapy. Anti-receptor-binding domain (RBD) IgG binding antibody assays and surrogate neutralizing antibody assays were performed after BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccination in 45 solid cancer patients (23 adjuvant and 22 palliative chemotherapy) and in 24 healthy controls before vaccination (baseline), at every two to four weeks after the first (post-dose 1) and the second vaccination (post-dose 2). The levels of anti-RBD IgG and neutralizing antibodies increased significantly from baseline through post-dose 1 to post-dose 2 in all three groups. At the post-dose 1, the anti-RBD IgG and neutralizing antibody levels were significantly lower in cancer patients than in healthy controls. However, by post-dose 2, the seropositivity of anti-RBD IgG and neutralizing antibodies uniformly reached 100% across all groups, with no significant disparity in antibody levels among the three groups. Moreover, the antibody titers were not significantly different between patients with a vaccine and chemotherapy interval of more than 14 days or those with less than 14 days. This study demonstrated that after second doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, humoral immune responses in patients receiving chemotherapy were comparable to those of healthy controls, regardless of whether the purpose of the anti-cancer treatment was palliative or adjuvant. Furthermore, the timing of vaccination did not affect the level of humoral immunity after the second vaccination.

Canine mammary gland tumors (MGTs) pose a significant challenge due to their malignancy and the burden they place on the affected animals. Recent studies on human breast cancer have explored the potential of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 15-3, and cancer antigen (CA) 27-29, which originate from the mammary gland or somewhere else, as an area of interest for early tumor detection. The use of ELISA measurements of CEA, CA 15-3, and CA 27-29 has shown promising diagnostic performance in detecting canine MGTs. Elevated levels of CEA were observed in both MGT and ovarian cancer patients, while increased levels of CA 15-3 and CA 27-29 were found only in MGT patients. This indicates that the combined use of these biomarkers through ELISA testing can effectively differentiate MGT from other tumors and may be useful in monitoring metastasis and recurrence of canine MGT. In terms of sensitivity and specificity, only CA 27-29 exhibited significant diagnostic performance in detecting and distinguishing MGT from other cancers. This underscores the need for further research to evaluate the diagnostic performance of CEA and CA 15-3 using a larger sample size. Considering the potential overlap of biomarkers associated with specific tumors in different organs, the combined application of tumor markers is crucial to enhance the sensitivity and specificity of cancer diagnosis. Therefore, this study underscores the potential use of combined biomarkers in veterinary medicine, aligning with the recent progress in the exploration of blood biomarkers in human oncology.

While the guidelines for adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for colon cancer are relatively standardized, those for early rectal cancer are still lacking. We therefore evaluated the role of AC in clinical stage II rectal cancer treatment after preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Patients diagnosed with early rectal cancer (defined by clinical stage T3/4, N0) who completed CRT followed by surgery were enrolled in this retrospective study. To evaluate the role of AC, we analyzed the risk of recurrence and survival based on clinicopathologic parameters and adjuvant chemotherapy. Of the 112 patients, 11 patients (9.8%) experienced recurrence and five patients (4.8%) died. In a multivariate analysis, circumferential resection margin involvement (CRM+) on magnetic resonance imaging at diagnosis, CRM involvement following neoadjuvant therapy (ypCRM+), tumor regression grade (≤G1) and no-AC were considered poor prognostic factors for recurrence free survival (RFS). In addition, ypCRM+ and no-AC were associated with poor overall survival (OS) in the multivariate analysis. AC including 5-FU monotherapy demonstrated the benefits of reduced recurrence and prolonged survival in clinical stage II rectal cancer, even in pathologic stage following neoadjuvant therapy (ypStage) 0-I. Further prospective studies are needed to verify the benefit of each regimen of AC and the development of a method that can accurately predict CRM status before surgery, and a vigorous treatment that can induce CRM non-involvement (CRM−) should be considered even in early stages of rectal cancer.

Purpose: Microinvasive breast cancer (MIBC) is an invasive carcinoma with a tumor dimension not exceeding 1 mm. Owing to its low incidence, the rate of axillary node metastasis and its management are not well established. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of lymph node metastasis (LNM) and identify variables associated with LNM, as well as to evaluate the need for axillary staging in MIBC patients by analyzing nationwide data. Methods: The Korean Breast Cancer Society registry was searched to identify MIBC patients diagnosed between January 1996 and April 2020. Patients without neoadjuvant chemotherapy experiences, systemic metastasis, and missing or discordant data were eligible for the analysis. The incidence rate of LNM was determined, and variables associated with LNM were identified by multivariable regression analysis. Results: Of 2,427 MIBC patients identified, 98 (4.0%) had LNM and 12 (0.5%) had N2/3 disease. Type of breast operation (odds ratio [OR], 2.093; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.332–3.290; P = 0.001), age (OR, 2.091; 95% CI, 1.326–3.298; P = 0.002), hormone receptor status (OR, 2.220; 95% CI, 1.372–3.594; P = 0.001), and lymphovascular invasion (OR, 11.143; 95% CI, 6.354–19.540; P < 0.001) were significantly related to LNM. Conclusion The incidence of LNM in MIBC patients was only 4.0% in our study, suggesting that de-escalation of axillary surgical interventions could be carefully considered. The indications for axillary staging should be individualized considering tumor volume, age, hormone receptor status, and lymphovascular invasion to improve the quality of life of MIBC survivors.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) in patients with node-negative breast cancer of 5cm or larger tumors undergoing mastectomy Materials and Methods: Medical records of 274 patients from 18 institutions treated with mastectomy between January 2000 and December 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Among these, 202 patients underwent PMRT, while 72 did not. Two hundred and forty-one patients (88.0%) received systemic chemotherapy, and 172 (62.8%) received hormonal therapy. Patients receiving PMRT were younger, more likely to have progesterone receptor-positive tumors, and received adjuvant chemotherapy more frequently compared with those without PMRT (p <0.001, 0.018, and <0.001, respectively). Other characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Results: With a median follow-up of 95 months (range, 1-249), there were 9 locoregional recurrences, and 20 distant metastases. The 8-year locoregional recurrence-free survival rates were 98.0% with PMRT and 91.3% without PMRT (p=0.133), and the 8-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 91.8% with PMRT and 73.9% without PMRT (p=0.008). On multivariate analysis incorporating age, histologic grade, lymphovascular invasion, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, and PMRT, the absence of lymphovascular invasion and the receipt of PMRT were associated with improved DFS (p=0.025 and 0.009, respectively). Conclusion Locoregional recurrence rate was very low in node-negative breast cancer of 5cm or larger tumors treated with mastectomy regardless of the receipt of PMRT. However, PMRT was significantly associated with improved DFS. Further investigation is needed to confirm these findings.

Background/Aims: Despite the increasing need for geriatric assessment prior to chemotherapy, the method for this assessment remains inadequate for older cancer patients. We aimed to propose a simple assessment method to predict the performance of adjuvant chemotherapy in older patients after colon cancer surgery. Methods: This prospective study included patients over 65 years of age who were scheduled for adjuvant chemotherapy after colon cancer surgery. Before initiating chemotherapy, their functional status was assessed on the basis of activities of daily living (ADL)/instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). These parameters were analyzed with clinical characteristics and the patterns of adjuvant chemotherapy. The focus was on the completion rate of adjuvant chemotherapy. Results: A total of 89 patients with a median age of 72 years were analyzed. Among them, 54 (61%) were non-impaired and 35 (39%) were impaired regarding their ADL/IADL classification. Low body mass index and impairment of ADL/IADLs were significantly associated with chemotherapy interruption. Among toxicities, fatigue and hand-foot syndrome were independent prognostic factors for chemotherapy interruption. Impairments of ADL/IADL were significantly associated with fatigue regardless of age. Based on age and ADL/IADL stratification, younger patients (≤ 72 years) and/or those who were ADL/IADL non-impaired were significantly more likely to complete adjuvant chemotherapy than older patients (> 72 years) and ADL/IADL impaired patients (p = 0.038). This was regardless of the chemotherapy regimen. Conclusions Functional assessment using ADL/IADL is a convenient method to predict chemotherapy toxicity and performance. These results suggested that routine screening for ADL/IADLs could guide appropriate patient selection for the completion of adjuvant chemotherapy and predict expected outcomes.

Extra-pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma is a rare and aggressive cancer. Although several biological and histological markers have been suggested as prognostic factors for this cancer, the prognostic importance of systemic inflammatory markers, including the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio, is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the association between systemic inflammatory markers and the prognosis of extra-pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 85 patients with unresectable or metastatic extra-pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma who received platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line chemotherapy from August 2007 to November 2019. We used time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to determine the cut-off values. The cut-off values for the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio were 3.0 and 158.5, respectively. There was no significant difference in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score, Ki-67 index, or response to chemotherapy between groups. The high neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio group showed significantly worse overall survival (high vs. low, median 11.1 vs. 21.0 months, log-rank p=0.004) and shorter median progression-free survival, but the latter was not statistically significant. The high platelet-lymphocyte ratio group also showed significantly worse progression-free survival and overall survival than the low platelet-lymphocyte ratio group (high vs. low:median 5.6 vs. 9.8 months, log-rank p=0.047 and median 13.8 vs. 21.0 months, log-rank p=0.013, respectively). In multivariable analysis, a high neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio is a potent and readily available prognostic factor for extra-pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Objective: To assess the incremental prognostic value of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in comparison toa clinical risk model (Framingham risk score, FRS) and coronary artery calcium score (CACS) for future cardiac events in ischemicstroke patients without chest pain. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 1418 patients with acute stroke who had no previous cardiac diseaseand underwent CCTA, including CACS. Stenosis degree and plaque types (high-risk, non-calcified, mixed, or calcified plaques) wereassessed as CCTA variables. High-risk plaque was defined when at least two of the following characteristics were observed:low-density plaque, positive remodeling, spotty calcification, or napkin-ring sign. We compared the incremental prognosticvalue of CCTA for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) over CACS and FRS. Results: The prevalence of any plaque and obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) (stenosis ≥ 50%) were 70.7% and 30.2%,respectively. During the median follow-up period of 48 months, 108 patients (7.6%) experienced MACE. Increasing FRS, CACS,and stenosis degree were positively associated with MACE (all p< 0.05). Patients with high-risk plaque type showed the highestincidence of MACE, followed by non-calcified, mixed, and calcified plaque, respectively (log-rank p< 0.001). Among theprediction models for MACE, adding stenosis degree to FRS showed better discrimination and risk reclassification compared toFRS or the FRS + CACS model (all p< 0.05). Furthermore, incorporating plaque type in the prediction model significantly improvedreclassification (integrated discrimination improvement, 0.08; p= 0.023) and showed the highest discrimination index(C-statistics, 0.85). However, the addition of CACS on CCTA with FRS did not add to the prediction ability for MACE (p> 0.05). Conclusion Assessment of stenosis degree and plaque type using CCTA provided additional prognostic value over CACS andFRS to risk stratify stroke patients without prior history of CAD better.