Objective:To investigate the efficacy of radiotherapy in patients with advanced esophageal cancer receiving first-line chemoimmunotherapy.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 137 patients with Stage Ⅳ esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated at our hospital from January 2018 to May 2023. These patients were divided into two groups: a group treated with first-line chemoimmunotherapy combined with radiotherapy (chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group, n = 43) and a group treated with only chemoimmunotherapy ( n = 94). Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was applied to balance baseline characteristics between the groups. With overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) as study endpoints, the survival data were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method, the log-rank test, and the Cox regression method. Results:Before calibration, the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group significantly outperformed the sole chemoimmunotherapy group in median PFS (13.6 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.501, 95% CI: 0.309-0.811, P = 0.005). After calibration using the COX proportional-hazards model for age, gender, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, smoking history, T/N/M stage, and tumor location, the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group still had significant advantages in PFS (14.7 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.441, 95% CI: 0.261-0.745, P = 0.002). IPTW analysis further confirmed this trend (13.9 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.492, 95% CI: 0.304-0.795, P < 0.001). Specifically, the median OS of the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group demonstrated significant improvement in all analyses: pre-calibration (29.5 months vs. 18.0 months; HR: 0.507, 95% CI: 0.297-0.867, P = 0.013), after calibration using the Cox model (27.5 months vs. 16.7 months; HR: 0.470, 95% CI: 0.266-0.830, P = 0.009), and after calibration using IPTW (29.5 months vs. 16.9 months; HR: 0.448, 95% CI: 0.262-0.764, P < 0.001). Conclusions:The combination of radiotherapy and first-line chemoimmunotherapy can significantly improve survival outcomes of patients with advanced ESCC, suggesting its potential as a standard treatment strategy.

Objective To analyze the temporal changing trend of postoperative pneumonia(POP)monitoring data in a tertiary first-class cancer hospital in Fujian Province from 2018 to 2023,and provide reference for the effective-ness of implementation of healthcare-associated infection(HAI)prevention and control measures.Methods The temporal changing trend of POP monitoring data of cancer patients in this hospital from 2018 to 2023 was analyzed by Joinpoint regression model,and the average annual percentage change(AAPC)was calculated.Results From 2018 to 2023,the POP incidences of all cancer patients and patients with different tumors in this hospital were as follows:3.46％in all cancer patients,4.77％,18.16％,11.50％,4.66％,0.85％,3.74％,and 0.46％in pa-tients with lung cancer,esophageal cancer,gastric cancer,intestinal cancer,gynecological tumors,hepatobiliary-pancreatic tumor,as well as head and neck tumors,respectively.From 2018 to 2023,the POP incidence of all can-cer patients in the hospital decreased from 5.47％to 1.73％,and POP incidences of patients with lung cancer,gas-tric cancer,and intestinal cancer decreased from 12.23％,14.93％,and 4.40％to 2.60％,3.73％,and 2.09％,respectively.Joinpoint regression model analysis showed that from 2018 to 2023,the AAPC of POP incidence of all cancer patients in the hospital was-19.78％,and the AAPCs of patients with lung cancer,gastric cancer,and in-testinal cancer were-23.69％,-27.30％,and-19.40％,respectively.The incidences of POP in all cancer pa-tients,as well as patients with lung cancer,gastric cancer,and intestinal cancer all showed downward trends,and the differences were all statistically significant(all P＜0.05).According to age,the AAPCs of the ≤60 and＞60 year old groups were-22.02％and-20.48％,respectively,both groups showed statistically significant difference in trends(both P＜0.05).In terms of gender,the AAPCs of the male and female groups were-16.56％and-28.35％,respectively,both groups showed statistically significant difference in trends(both P＜0.05).From 2018 to 2023,Klebsiella pneumoniae showed a significant upward trend in the constituent of POP pathogens in cancer patients,with an AAPC of 6.92％,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion The incidences of POP in some cancer patients in the hospital present significant downward trends,indicating that HAI infection prevention and control measures are effective,but it is still necessary to strengthen the meticulous management of the whole perioperative process.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy of radiotherapy in patients with advanced esophageal cancer receiving first-line chemoimmunotherapy.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 137 patients with Stage Ⅳ esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) treated at our hospital from January 2018 to May 2023. These patients were divided into two groups: a group treated with first-line chemoimmunotherapy combined with radiotherapy (chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group, n = 43) and a group treated with only chemoimmunotherapy ( n = 94). Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was applied to balance baseline characteristics between the groups. With overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) as study endpoints, the survival data were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method, the log-rank test, and the Cox regression method. Results:Before calibration, the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group significantly outperformed the sole chemoimmunotherapy group in median PFS (13.6 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.501, 95% CI: 0.309-0.811, P = 0.005). After calibration using the COX proportional-hazards model for age, gender, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, smoking history, T/N/M stage, and tumor location, the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group still had significant advantages in PFS (14.7 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.441, 95% CI: 0.261-0.745, P = 0.002). IPTW analysis further confirmed this trend (13.9 months vs. 7.0 months; HR: 0.492, 95% CI: 0.304-0.795, P < 0.001). Specifically, the median OS of the chemoimmunotherapy + radiotherapy group demonstrated significant improvement in all analyses: pre-calibration (29.5 months vs. 18.0 months; HR: 0.507, 95% CI: 0.297-0.867, P = 0.013), after calibration using the Cox model (27.5 months vs. 16.7 months; HR: 0.470, 95% CI: 0.266-0.830, P = 0.009), and after calibration using IPTW (29.5 months vs. 16.9 months; HR: 0.448, 95% CI: 0.262-0.764, P < 0.001). Conclusions:The combination of radiotherapy and first-line chemoimmunotherapy can significantly improve survival outcomes of patients with advanced ESCC, suggesting its potential as a standard treatment strategy.

Objective To analyze the temporal changing trend of postoperative pneumonia(POP)monitoring data in a tertiary first-class cancer hospital in Fujian Province from 2018 to 2023,and provide reference for the effective-ness of implementation of healthcare-associated infection(HAI)prevention and control measures.Methods The temporal changing trend of POP monitoring data of cancer patients in this hospital from 2018 to 2023 was analyzed by Joinpoint regression model,and the average annual percentage change(AAPC)was calculated.Results From 2018 to 2023,the POP incidences of all cancer patients and patients with different tumors in this hospital were as follows:3.46％in all cancer patients,4.77％,18.16％,11.50％,4.66％,0.85％,3.74％,and 0.46％in pa-tients with lung cancer,esophageal cancer,gastric cancer,intestinal cancer,gynecological tumors,hepatobiliary-pancreatic tumor,as well as head and neck tumors,respectively.From 2018 to 2023,the POP incidence of all can-cer patients in the hospital decreased from 5.47％to 1.73％,and POP incidences of patients with lung cancer,gas-tric cancer,and intestinal cancer decreased from 12.23％,14.93％,and 4.40％to 2.60％,3.73％,and 2.09％,respectively.Joinpoint regression model analysis showed that from 2018 to 2023,the AAPC of POP incidence of all cancer patients in the hospital was-19.78％,and the AAPCs of patients with lung cancer,gastric cancer,and in-testinal cancer were-23.69％,-27.30％,and-19.40％,respectively.The incidences of POP in all cancer pa-tients,as well as patients with lung cancer,gastric cancer,and intestinal cancer all showed downward trends,and the differences were all statistically significant(all P＜0.05).According to age,the AAPCs of the ≤60 and＞60 year old groups were-22.02％and-20.48％,respectively,both groups showed statistically significant difference in trends(both P＜0.05).In terms of gender,the AAPCs of the male and female groups were-16.56％and-28.35％,respectively,both groups showed statistically significant difference in trends(both P＜0.05).From 2018 to 2023,Klebsiella pneumoniae showed a significant upward trend in the constituent of POP pathogens in cancer patients,with an AAPC of 6.92％,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion The incidences of POP in some cancer patients in the hospital present significant downward trends,indicating that HAI infection prevention and control measures are effective,but it is still necessary to strengthen the meticulous management of the whole perioperative process.

Objective To establish an UPLC-MS/MS method for determinating content of three paclitaxel fatty acid esters such as paclitaxel myristate(PTX-MA),paclitaxel palmitate(PTX-PA)and paclitaxel myristate(PTX-SA)in mouse plasma,and preliminarily investigate the pharmacokinetic characteristics of their liposomes in mice.Methods Eclipse Plus C8 chromatography column(2.1 mm×50 mm,1.8 μm)was used with different proportions of 0.2%formic acid aqueous solution(A)and methanol(B)mixture as mobile phase for gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.3 ml/min.The collum temperature was 30℃.The sample injection volume was 10 μl.The triple quadrupole mass series spectrometer was used as multi-reaction monitoring(MRM).Results PTX-MA,PTX-PA and PTX-SA all exhibited a good linear relationship in the range of 5.0～500.0 ng/ml(r>0.995 0).Their RSD of precision,stability,extraction recovery rate and matrix effect test results was all less than 10%.The half-lives(t1/2)for liposomes of three paclitaxel fatty acid esters PTX-MA-L、PTX-PA-L and PTX-SA-L in mice were 14.78 h,44.49 h and 69.32 h individually,and their clearance rates(CL)were 29.06 L?kg/h,24.94 L?kg/h and 13.74 L?kg/h,respectively.Conclusion This method had high specificity,sensitivity,easy operation and good stability,which could be used for the determination of paclitaxel fatty acid esters in mouse plasma.The results of pharmacokinetic studies in mice showed that t1/2 for paclitaxel fatty acid esters were significantly prolonged,and the clearance rate were significantly reduced with the length of fatty acid carbon chains increasement,which indicated that esterification of paclitaxel with different chain length saturated fatty acids could obviously alter its in vivo pharmacokinetic properties,which provided scientific basis for the research and development of nano formulations of paclitaxel fatty acid ester prodrug.

Objective To design and synthesize the conjugate (compound 1) of chlorin e₆ (compound 3) with fluorouracil (5-Fu) as novel pH-responsive dual-mode antitumor photosensitizer by acyl hydrazone bond coupling, based on literature reports that combination of 5-Fu and photosensitizer possess synergistic anti-tumor effect, and investigate its photodynamic antitumor activity and mechanism. Methods Lead compound 3 was obtained by alkali degradation with 25% KOH-CH₃OH on pheophorbide a (compound 4) which was prepared through acid hydrolysis of chlorophyll a in crude chlorophyll extracts from silkworm excrement. Reflux reaction of 5-Fu with P₂S₅ in pyridine formed crude 4-thio-5-fluorouracil which was followed to react with hydrazine hydrate (N₂H₄·H₂O) in CH₃OH to give 5-fluorouracil-4-hydrazone (compound 2). Then, treatment of compound 3 i.e. acid alkali degradation product of chlorophyll a in silkworm excrement with EDC·HCl generated its 17¹- and 15² cyclic anhydride which was followed to directly react with intermediate compound 2 to successfully get title compound 1. In addition, its pH-responsive 5-Fu release and photodynamic antitumor activity and their mechanisms in vitro were investigated. Results Compound 1 could responsively release 5-Fu at pH 5.0, with a cumulative release rate of 60.3% within 24 h. It exhibited much higher phototoxicity against melanoma B16-F10 and liver cancer HepG2 cells than talaporfin and its precursor compound 3, with IC₅₀ value being 0.73 μmol/L for B16-F10 cells and 0.90 μmol/L for HepG2 cells, respectively. Upon light irradiation, it also could significantly induce cell apoptosis and intracellular ROS level and block cell cycle in S phase. Its structure was confirmed by UV, ¹H-NMR, ESI-MS and elemental analysis data. Conclusion The conjugate compound 1 of compound 3 and 5-Fu has the advantages of strong PDT anticancer activity, high therapeutic index (i.e. dark toxicity/phototoxicity ratio) and responsively release 5-Fu at pH 5.0 etc. which shows “unimolecular” dual antitumor effects of PDT and chemotherapy and is worthy of further research and development.

Objective:pH low insertion peptide (pHLIP)-variant 7 (var7)-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was used to explore an accurate imaging tool that targeted burn wounds to better perform burn debridement.Methods:Twelve rat models of burn wound were established and pHLIP-var7-FITC with different concentrations (0.5, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/ml) were injected from the rat tail vein for in vivo fluorescence imaging. By determining the concentration of fluorescent conjugates to the burn wound, the scope of wound injury necrosis was judged by combining pathological sections, and its residue and toxicity in important organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, and brain were detected. The Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, Bonferroni correction method and one-way analysis of variance were used for data analysis. Results:Within 24 h, the fluorescence photons per unit area of the burn wound in the group of 0.5 mg/ml, 1.5 mg/ml and 2.0 mg/ml were 1.49(1.31, 1.65), 2.46(1.88, 2.68), 2.77 (1.94, 3.10)×10 7 p·s -1·cm -2·Sr -1, with significant differences in the overall distribution of fluorescence photons ( H=73.55, P<0.001). The fluorescence intensity was stronger in the group with higher concentration, but with no significant difference in the number of fluorescence photons between the group of 1.5 mg/ml and 2.0 mg/ml ( P=0.263, Bonferroni correction method). At 14 time points (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 12, 24 h), there was no significant difference in the overall mean of fluorescence photons ( F=1.04, P=0.419), and the tissue with burn necrosis seen in tissue sections was highly consistent with the fluorescence imaging region. There was no obvious fluorescence residue in the heart, liver, kidney and brain sections. Conclusion:In superficial second-degree burn tissue, pHLIP-var7-FITC can accurately target and gather on the burn wound within 24 h, showing a clear boundary between burn tissue and normal tissue, which can assist clinical surgical debridement to determine the extent of injury.

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of enhanced CT-based radiomics for brain metastasis (BM) and selective use of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC).Methods:Clinical data of 97 patients diagnosed with LS-SCLC confirmed by pathological and imaging examination in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from January 2012 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox and Spearman correlation tests were used to select the radiomics features significantly associated with the incidence of BM and calculate the radiomics score. The calibration curve, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), 5-fold cross-validation, decision curve analysis (DCA), and integrated Brier score (IBS) were employed to evaluate the predictive power and clinical benefits of the radiomics score. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were adopted to draw survival curves and assess differences between two groups.Results:A total of 1272 radiomics features were extracted from enhanced CT. After the LASSO Cox regression and Spearman correlation tests, 8 radiomics features associated with the incidence of BM were used to calculate the radiomics score. The AUCs of radiomics scores to predict 1-year and 2-year BM were 0.845 (95% CI=0.746-0.943) and 0.878 (95% CI=0.774-0.983), respectively. The 5-fold cross validation, calibration curve, DCA and IBS also demonstrated that the radiomics model yielded good predictive performance and net clinical benefit. Patients were divided into the high-risk and low-risk cohorts based on the radiomics score. For patients at high risk, the 1-year and 2-year cumulative incidence rates of BM were 0% and 18.2% in the PCI group, and 61.8% and 75.4% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P<0.001). In the PCI group, the 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 92.9% and 78.6%, and 85.3% and 36.8% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.023). For patients at low risk, the 1-year and 2-year cumulative incidence rates of BM were 0% and 0% in the PCI group, and 10.0% and 20.2% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.062). In the PCI group, the 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 100% and 77.0%, and 96.7% and 79.3% in the non-PCI group, respectively ( P=0.670). Conclusion:The radiomics model based on enhanced CT images yields excellent performance for predicting BM and individualized PCI.

Objective:To investigate the value of derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR) in predicting the prognosis of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) patients treated with the first-line atezolizumab immunotherapy and chemotherapy.Methods:From the Project Data Sphere platform, the clinical data and laboratory test data of 53 ES-SCLC patients who received the first-line atezolizumab immunotherapy and chemotherapy in the global multicenter phase Ⅱ prospective study NCT03041311 from February 2017 to February 2022 were collected. The Contal-O'Quigley method was used to calculate the optimal cut-off value of baseline dNLR for determining the overall survival (OS) of patients. The dNLR higher than or equal to the optimal cut-off value was defined as high dNLR, and less than the optimal cut-off value was defined as low dNLR. According to optimal cut-off value, the dNLR levels at baseline and after 4 cycles of chemotherapy were determined, and dynamic dNLR grouping was performed (low risk: low dNLR at baseline and after 4 cycles of chemotherapy; intermediate risk: high dNLR at baseline or after 4 cycles of chemotherapy; high risk: high dNLR at baseline and after 4 cycles of chemotherapy). The differences in clinicopathological features between the baseline high dNLR group and low dNLR group were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the OS and progression-free survival (PFS) curves, and log-rank test was used to compare the differences between the two groups. Univariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the influencing factors of OS and PFS. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of baseline dNLR grouping and dynamic dNLR grouping for 1-year OS rate in ES-SCLC patients receiving the first-line atezolizumab immunotherapy and chemotherapy.Results:Among the 53 patients, 34 (64.20%) were male and 19 (35.80%) were female; 27 (50.90%) were < 65 years old and 26 (49.10%) were ≥65 years old. The optimal cut-off value of baseline dNLR for determining the OS was 1.79. There were 17 cases in low dNLR group and 36 cases in high dNLR group at baseline. The proportion of patients with elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the baseline high dNLR group was higher than that in the baseline low dNLR group [58.33% (21/36) vs. 17.65% (3/17), χ2 = 7.72, P = 0.005]. The 1-year OS rates of the baseline high and low dNLR groups were 44.0% and 81.9%, and the 1-year PFS rates were 2.5% and 17.6%. The differences in OS and PFS between the two groups were statistically significant (both P < 0.05). There were 38 patients with complete dynamic dNLR data, including 9 cases of low-risk, 19 cases of medium-risk and 10 cases of high-risk, and the 1-year OS rates of the three groups were 90.0%, 67.5% and 33.3%, the difference in OS between the three groups was statistically significant ( P = 0.011). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that baseline dNLR (low dNLR vs. high dNLR) was the influencing factor for OS of patients ( HR = 0.163, 95% CI 0.057-0.469, P = 0.001) and PFS ( HR = 0.505, 95% CI 0.268-0.952, P = 0.035). Time-dependent ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of baseline dNLR grouping and dynamic dNLR grouping for predicting 1-year OS rate of ES-SCLC patients receiving the first-line atezolizumab combined with chemotherapy was 0.674 (95% CI 0.575-0.887) and 0.731 (95% CI 0.529-0.765). Conclusions:Baseline and dynamic dNLR grouping may be effective markers for predicting the prognosis of ES-SCLC patients receiving the first-line atezolizumab immunotherapy and chemotherapy.