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Background: The albumin-to-globulin ratio (AGR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been recently regarded as promising prognostic factors in various malignancies. The present study investigated the prognostic value of combining the AGR and NLR (ANS) for risk assessments in multiple myeloma (MM) with renal impairment (RI)., Methods: From 2011 to 2018, 79 patients with MM and RI were enrolled in this study. Receiver operating curves (ROCs) were constructed to determine optimal AGR and NLR thresholds for predicting overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) during follow up. The prognostic values of AGR, NLR, and ANS were evaluated with Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier methods. We also created a predictive nomogram for prognostic evaluations of OS and PFS, and the predictive accuracy was assessed with a concordance index (c-index)., Results: The ROC curves analyses showed that the optimal cut-off levels were 2.27 for NLR and 1.57 for AGR. A high NLR and a high ANS were significantly associated with worse OS and PFS. However, a high NLR combined with a low AGR was associated with worse OS. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that both the NLR and ANS were independent predictors for both OS and PFS and that a low AGR was an independent predictor of a reduced OS. The nomogram accurately predicted OS (c-index: 0.785) and PFS (c-index: 0.786) in patients with MM and RI., Conclusion: ANS may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker in patients with MM and RI. The proposed nomograms may facilitate prognostic predictions for patients with MM and RI., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests in this work., (© 2024 Zhang et al.) more...

Importance: Despite the expansion of published electronic alerts for acute kidney injury (AKI), there are still concerns regarding their effect on the clinical outcomes of patients., Objective: To evaluate the effect of the AKI alert combined with a care bundle on the care and clinical outcomes of patients with hospital-acquired AKI., Design, Setting, and Participants: This single-center, double-blind, parallel-group randomized clinical trial was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital in Nanjing, China, from August 1, 2019, to December 31, 2021. The inclusion criteria were inpatient adults aged 18 years or older with AKI, which was defined using the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes creatinine criteria. Participants were randomized 1:1 to either the alert group or the usual care group, which were stratified by medical vs surgical ward and by intensive care unit (ICU) vs non-ICU setting. Analyses were conducted on the modified intention-to-treat population., Interventions: A programmatic AKI alert system generated randomization automatically and sent messages to the mobile telephones of clinicians (alert group) or did not send messages (usual care group). A care bundle accompanied the AKI alert and consisted of general, nonindividualized, and nonmandatory AKI management measures., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was maximum change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) within 7 days after randomization. Secondary patient-centered outcomes included death, dialysis, AKI progression, and AKI recovery. Care-centered outcomes included diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for AKI., Results: A total of 2208 patients (median [IQR] age, 65 [54-72] years; 1560 males [70.7%]) were randomized to the alert group (n = 1123) or the usual care group (n = 1085) and analyzed. Within 7 days of randomization, median (IQR) maximum absolute changes in eGFR were 3.7 (-6.4 to 19.3) mL/min/1.73 m2 in the alert group and 2.9 (-9.2 to 16.9) mL/min/1.73 m2 in the usual care group (P = .24). This result was robust in all subgroups in an exploratory analysis. For care-centered outcomes, patients in the alert group had more intravenous fluids (927 [82.6%] vs 670 [61.8%]; P < .001), less exposure to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (56 [5.0%] vs 119 [11.0%]; P < .001), and more AKI documentation at discharge (560 [49.9%] vs 296 [27.3%]; P < .001) than patients in the usual care group. No differences were observed in patient-centered secondary outcomes between the 2 groups., Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this randomized clinical trial showed that the electronic AKI alert did not improve kidney function or other patient-centered outcomes but changed patient care behaviors. The findings warrant the use of a combination of high-quality interventions and AKI alert in future clinical practice., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03736304. more...

Purpose: Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy is now the stand of care for lung cancer. Due to the low incidence, the study of acute kidney injury (AKI) in lung cancer patients treated with ICIs was hardly reported. We focused on the incidence, characteristics, risk factors, and mortality of AKI in advanced lung cancer patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors., Methods: We reviewed advanced lung cancer patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors between January 2018 to August 2020 at Jiangsu Province Hospital. Patients were followed up for 6 months. We used the logistic regression model to evaluate risk factors for AKI, and Kaplan-Meier method to assess the association between AKI and mortality., Results: A total of 305 advanced lung cancer patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors. The median age was 64 years and 80.6% of patients were male. The incidence of AKI was 10.2%, and the incidence of ICI-AKI was 4.6%. Multivariate analysis showed that concomitant use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (OR 2.509; 95% CI 1.053-5.974) and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors (OR 2.656; 95% CI 1.091-6.466) were risk factors for AKI. In addition, concomitant use of NSAIDs (OR 5.170; 95% CI 1.087-24.595) and RAAS inhibitors (OR 5.921; 95% CI 1.871-18.737), and the occurrence of extra-renal immune-related adverse events (OR 4.726; 95% CI 1.462-15.280) were significantly associated with ICI-AKI. ICI-AKI was not associated with mortality while severe AKI was associated with higher risk of mortality., Conclusion: AKI is common in advanced lung cancer patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors. The characteristics and risk factors of ICI-AKI were similar to those previously reported in other solid organ malignancies treated with ICIs. Severe AKI may indicate higher mortality., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.) more...

Aim: To explore the incidence, risk factors and overall outcome of the first episode of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related acute kidney injury (ICI-AKI) in Chinese patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors. Methods: Data for patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors at Jiangsu Province Hospital between December 2017 and January 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: A total of 5.6% of 551 patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors developed ICI-AKI. Concomitant use of NSAIDs, ICI cycles and extrarenal immune-related adverse events may be independently associated with ICI-AKI. ICI-AKI may not be a risk factor for increased mortality or worse progression-free survival. Conclusions: ICI-AKI is relatively rare and its occurrence may not affect the overall 6-month outcome of patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors. Further studies are needed to verify these findings. more...

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have brought a paradigm shift to cancer treatment. However, little is known about the risk of renal adverse events (RAEs) of ICI-based regimens, especially ICI combination therapy., Methods: We carried out a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare the risk of RAEs between ICI-based regimens and traditional cancer therapy, including chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Subgroup analysis was conducted based on tumor types., Results: Ninety-five eligible RCTs involving 40,552 participants were included. The overall incidence of RAEs, grade 3-5 RAEs, acute kidney injury (AKI), and grade 3-5 AKI was 4.3%, 1.2%, 1.3%, and 0.8%, respectively. Both ICI-based treatment regimens and traditional cancer therapy showed significantly higher risk of RAEs and AKI than the placebo. Among ICI monotherapy, anti-PD-1 (RR: 0.51, 95%CI: 0.29-0.91) was significantly safer than anti-CTLA-4 in terms of RAEs. Anti-CTLA-4 showed significantly higher toxicity than anti-PD-1 (RR: 0.33, 95%CI: 0.14-0.77), anti-PD-L1 (RR: 0.38, 95%CI:0.16-0.91), and anti-PD-1 plus anti-CTLA-4 (RR: 0.32, 95%CI: 0.12-0.87) in terms of grade 3-5 RAEs. The difference was not significant between ICI monotherapy and traditional cancer therapy, except that targeted therapy seemed the least toxic therapy in terms of the incidence of AKI. Anti-CTLA-4 plus anti-PD-1 were associated with higher risk of RAEs than anti-PD-1 (RR: 1.61, 95%CI: 1.02-2.56). The difference was not significant between other dual ICI regimens and ICI monotherapy in terms of RAEs and AKI. ICI plus chemotherapy showed increased risk of both RAEs and AKI compared with ICI monotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. The overall results remained robust in the meta-regression and sensitivity analyses., Conclusions: Among ICI monotherapy, anti-CTLA-4 appeared to be associated with increased toxicity, especially in terms of grade 3-5 RAEs. Anti-CTLA-4 plus anti-PD-1 were associated with higher risk of RAEs than anti-PD-1. However, the difference was not significant between other dual ICI regimens and ICI monotherapy in terms of RAEs and AKI. ICIs plus chemotherapy seemed to be the most toxic treatment regimen in terms of RAEs, AKI, and grade 3-5 AKI., Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO, identifier CRD42020197039., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Liu, Qin, Xu, Li, Ge, Mao and Xing.) more...

Purpose: Glycyrrhizic acid (GA) is the main active ingredient extracted from Chinese herb licorice root, and it shows anti-tumor effects in many cancer types, while its role in gastric cancer (GC) is still unknown. In this study, we evaluated the effects of GA on GC cells and explored the underlying mechanisms., Methods: The anti-proliferation effect of GA on GC cells was assessed by CCK-8, colony formation, and EdU assay. The effects of GA on cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometer. Western blotting was performed to explore the underlying mechanisms., Results: Our results showed that GA had a time- and dose-dependent inhibitory effect on proliferation of GC cells. Flow cytometer analysis demonstrated that GA would lead to G1/S-phase arrest and apoptosis. GA treatment down-regulated the levels of G1 phase-related proteins, including cyclin D1, D2, D3, E1, and E2. In terms of apoptosis, GA treatment up-regulated the levels of Bax, cleaved PARP, and pro-caspase-3, -8, -9, but did not influence their cleavage patterns. The expression of Bcl-2, survivin and p65 was attenuated after treatment. Besides, GA would down-regulate the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT pathway., Conclusion: This study focused on inhibitory effect of GA on GC cells by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Several important cyclins- and apoptosis-related proteins were involved in the regulation of GA to GC cells, and phosphorylated PI3K and AKT were attenuated. The results of this study indicated that GA is a potential and promising anti-cancer drug for GC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2020 Wang et al.) more...

High mobility group box (HMGB) consists primarily of HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 proteins. Although abnormal HMGB expression is associated with various tumors, the relationship with gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. In this study, HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 expression was analyzed using the Oncomine and TCGA databases. Correlations between HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 and clinicopathological factors were analyzed. cBioPortal was used to analyze HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 genetic alterations and its gene regulation network in GC tissue. HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 expression was higher in tumor tissues than in normal tissues, especially in GC. High HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 expression may predict a poor prognosis among patients with GC (hazard ratios [HR] = 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: [1.30-2.78]) and human digestive system neoplasm (HR = 1.85; 95% CI [1.64-2.10]). These findings suggest that HMGB1, HMGB2, and HMGB3 may be useful prognostic indicators for patients with GC., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.) more...