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Summary: There are limited data on the optimal choice of anticoagulation in multiple myeloma (MM) patients receiving immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs). We conducted a propensity score‐matched cohort study using the TriNetX database to compare the efficacy and safety of factor Xa inhibitors and warfarin in this patient population. Compared to warfarin, factor Xa inhibitors had a similar risk of deep vein thrombosis (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.11 [95% CI: 0.50–2.46]) or pulmonary embolism (HR: 1.08 [95% CI: 0.59–2.00]). There were no differences in the risk of gastrointestinal or intracranial bleeding. Factor Xa inhibitor‐treated patients had lower all‐cause mortality (HR: 0.56 [95% CI: 0.36–0.86]) compared with warfarin. These data suggest that factor Xa inhibitors had similar safety and efficacy compared with warfarin for MM patients on IMiDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women with a 5-year survival over 90%. However, anthracycline-based chemotherapy causes significant cardiotoxicity often requiring discontinuation of chemotherapeutic regimen among breast cancer survivors. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of exercise training in mitigating anthracycline-related cardiotoxicity among women with breast cancer. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. The outcomes of interest were left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS), early to atrial filling velocity (E/A) ratio, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max), and cardiac output (CO). We used the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2) to assess the risk of bias in individual studies. Results: We identified a total of 596 articles with 5 trials included in the final analysis. Exercise training was associated with an increase in VO2 max compared with no exercise training (mean difference, 3.95 [95% CI, 0.63–7.26]; I2 = 99.68%). Other cardiovascular outcomes such as LVEF (mean difference, 1.76 [95% CI, −1.95 to 5.46]; I2 = 99.44%), GLS (mean difference, 0.30 [95% CI, −0.49 to 1.10]; I2 = 96.63%), E/A ratio (mean difference, 0.05 [95% CI, −0.05 to 0.15]; I2 = 94.16%), and CO (mean difference, 0.38 [95% CI, −0.91 to 1.66]; I2 = 99.73%) are similar between patients who underwent exercise training and those who did not. Conclusions: Exercise was associated with an improvement in maximal oxygen uptake among women with breast cancer receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Statins are associated with improved survival outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), but the impact of lipophilic and hydrophilic statin properties on patient outcomes is unknown. Objectives: We aim to investigate if statins with lipophilic properties are associated with clinical outcomes in patients receiving ICIs. Method: We conducted a retrospective cohort study at two tertiary referral centers in Taiwan comprising patients receiving ICIs between January 2015 and December 2021. We compared the comparative effect of lipophilic and hydrophilic statins on patient outcomes. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS) and the secondary outcome was progression-free survival (PFS). Results: Among 734 patients receiving ICIs, there were 51 lipophilic statin users, 25 hydrophilic statin users, and 658 nonusers. Lipophilic statin users had a longer median OS (38.0 [IQR, 16.7–not reached] vs. 15.2 [IQR, 8.2–not reached] months vs. 18.9 [IQR, 5.4 51.6] months) and PFS (13.0 [IQR, 4.7–41.5] vs. 8.2 [IQR, 2.2–14.7] months vs. 5.6 [2.3–18.7] months) than hydrophilic statin users and non-statin users. In Cox proportional hazard analyses, the use of lipophilic statins was associated with a 40–50% lower risk of mortality and disease progression compared with hydrophilic statin or non-statin users. Conclusions: The use of lipophilic statins seems to be associated with survival benefits in patients undergoing immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest ☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. ☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:

Objective: Statins have been demonstrated to improve outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). This study aimed to investigate whether the timing of statin administration influences the outcomes of patients receiving ICB., Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing electronic health records from two tertiary referral centers in Taiwan. We compared the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients who received statins before and after ICB initiation., Results: We included 734 patients who received ICB. Among them, 606 were non-statin users, 76 started statins after ICB initiation, and 52 started statins before ICB initiation. Post-ICB statin users demonstrated significantly prolonged OS (median 37.6 versus 10.3 versus 11.3 months, p  = 0.009) and PFS (median 10.5 versus 6.3 versus 5.6 months, p  = 0.024) compared to pre-ICB statin and non-statin users. Statin use after ICB initiation had a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (HR, 0.65 [95% CI: 0.45-0.94], p  = 0.022) and progressive disease (HR, 0.71 [95% CI: 0.53-0.95], p  = 0.021) by approximately 30-35%, compared to non-statin users. However, statin use prior to ICB initiation did not affect the risk of all-cause mortality or progressive disease. Similar results were observed after controlling for potential cofounders such as age, sex, cancer stage, and cancer type., Conclusions: These findings suggest that initiating statin therapy after the initiation of ICB, regardless of indication, is associated with improved patient prognosis.

Background: Nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) has a favorable prognosis but has high propensity for recurrence. Recent development in one of the urinary biomarker tests, Bladder EpiCheck™, offers a noninvasive and accurate method to detect NMIBC recurrence. In this study, we aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of Bladder EpiCheck™ with urine cytology to detect NMIBC recurrence., Methods: We performed a systematic review search through PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and Scopus from inception to July 2023. Diagnostic accuracy was defined by sensitivity, negative predictive value (NPV), specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV)., Results: A total of 6 studies involving 1588 patients were included. Bladder EpiCheck™ has a sensitivity and specificity of 0.81 (95% CI: 0.63-0.91; I 2 : 43%) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.83-0.91; I 2 : 20%), respectively. On the other hand, urine cytology has a sensitivity and specificity of 0.63 (95% CI: 0.29-0.87; I 2 : 61%) and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.78-1.00; I 2 : 79%), respectively. EpiCheck™ has a higher NPV (0.94 (95% CI: 0.87-0.97) vs. 0.84 (95% CI: 0.80-0.87) though a lower PPV (0.62 (95% CI: 0.45-0.76) vs. 0.87 (95% CI: 0.56-0.97) than urine cytology. In our subgroup analysis, the sensitivity of Bladder EpiCheck™ for detecting high-grade tumors improved to 0.90 (95% CI: 0.83-0.94) while that for urine cytology improved to 0.72 (95% CI: 0.50-0.87)., Conclusion: Bladder EpiCheck™ has a high sensitivity and NPV for detecting recurrence among patients with NMIBC., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No financial or personal conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)