scholarly journals Management of colorectal cancer in the era of COVID-19: Challenges and suggestions

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042110106
Author(s):  
Walid Alam ◽  
Youssef Bouferraa ◽  
Yolla Haibe ◽  
Deborah Mukherji ◽  
Ali Shamseddine

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had a huge impact on all sectors around the world. In particular, the healthcare system has been subject to an enormous pressure that has surpassed its ability in many instances. Additionally, the pandemic has called for a review of our daily medical practices, including our approach to colorectal cancer management where treatment puts patients at high risk of virus exposure. Given their higher median age, patients are at an increased risk for severe symptoms and complications in cases of infection, especially in the setting of immunosuppression. Therefore, a review of the routine colorectal cancer practices is needed to minimize risk of exposure. Oncologists should weigh risk of exposure versus the patient’s oncologic benefits when approaching management. In addition, treatment protocols should be modified to minimize hospital visits and admissions while maintaining the same treatment efficacy. In this review, we will focus on challenges that colorectal cancer patients face during the pandemic, while highlighting the priority in each case. We will also discuss the evidence for potential modifications to existing treatment plans that could reduce infectious exposure without compromising care. Finally, we will discuss the impact of the socio-economic difficulties faced by Lebanese patients due to a poor economy toppled by an unexpected pandemic.

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Li ◽  
David Roder

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies have shown diabetes associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer. This study investigates the impact of a pre-cancer diabetes-related hospitalization record on colorectal cancer survival. Methods A retrospective cohort of 13190 colorectal cancer patients recorded on the South Australian Cancer Registry in 2003-2013 were examined. Diabetes-related hospitalization histories were obtained using linked inpatient data. Colorectal cancer deaths were available for 2003-2013. The association of survival from colorectal cancer with diabetes-related hospitalization history was assessed using competing risk analysis, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and cancer stage at diagnosis. Results 2765 patients with colorectal cancer (26.5%) had a history of hospital admission for diabetic complications, the most common being multiple complications (32%), followed by kidney and eye complications. The 5- and 10-year cancer survival probabilities were 63% and 56% in those with a diabetes complication history, significantly lower than 66% and 60% for patients without these complications (adjusted sub hazard ratio 1.11, 95% CI 1.02-1.20). Risk of colorectal cancer death was lower when theses diabetes-related hospitalizations were earlier than the year of cancer diagnosis - i.e., adjusted SHR 0.80, 95% CI 0.66-0.97 for 3-5 and 0.76, 95% CI 0.59-0.98 for 6+ years before the cancer diagnosis compared with same-year hospitalizations. Conclusions Colorectal cancer patients with a history of diabetes-related hospitalization have poorer survival, particularly if these hospitalizations were in the same year as the cancer diagnosis. Key messages Poorly controlled diabetes histories predict increased risk of colorectal cancer mortality.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2418
Author(s):  
Xuezhen Zeng ◽  
Simon E. Ward ◽  
Jingying Zhou ◽  
Alfred S. L. Cheng

A drastic difference exists between the 5-year survival rates of colorectal cancer patients with localized cancer and distal organ metastasis. The liver is the most favorable organ for cancer metastases from the colorectum. Beyond the liver-colon anatomic relationship, emerging evidence highlights the impact of liver immune microenvironment on colorectal liver metastasis. Prior to cancer cell dissemination, hepatocytes secrete multiple factors to recruit or activate immune cells and stromal cells in the liver to form a favorable premetastatic niche. The liver-resident cells including Kupffer cells, hepatic stellate cells, and liver-sinusoidal endothelial cells are co-opted by the recruited cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells and tumor-associated macrophages, to establish an immunosuppressive liver microenvironment suitable for tumor cell colonization and outgrowth. Current treatments including radical surgery, systemic therapy, and localized therapy have only achieved good clinical outcomes in a minority of colorectal cancer patients with liver metastasis, which is further hampered by high recurrence rate. Better understanding of the mechanisms governing the metastasis-prone liver immune microenvironment should open new immuno-oncology avenues for liver metastasis intervention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e14576-e14576
Author(s):  
Xinlu Liu ◽  
Jiasheng Xu ◽  
Jian Sun ◽  
Deng Wei ◽  
Xinsheng Zhang ◽  
...  

e14576 Background: Clinically, MSI had been used as an important molecular marker for the prognosis of colorectal cancer and other solid tumors and the formulation of adjuvant treatment plans, and it had been used to assist in the screening of Lynch syndrome. However, there were currently few reports on the incidence of MSI-H in Chinese pan-cancer patients. This study described the occurrence of MSI in a large multi-center pan-cancer cohort in China, and explored the correlation between MSI and patients' TMB, age, PD-L1 expression and other indicators. Methods: The study included 8361 patients with 8 cancer types from multiple tumor centers. Use immunohistochemistry to detect the expression of MMR protein (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2) in patients with various cancer types to determine the MSI status and detect the expression of PD-L1 in patients. Through NGS technology, 831 genes of 8361 Chinese cancer patients were sequenced and the tumor mutation load of the patients was calculated. The MSI mutations of patients in 8 cancer types were analyzed and the correlation between MSI mutations of patients and the patient's age, TMB and PD-L1 expression was analyzed. Results: The test results showed that MSI patients accounted for 1.66% of pan-cancers. Among them, MSI-H patients accounted for the highest proportion in intestinal cancer, reaching 7.2%. The correlation analysis between MSI and TMB was performed on patients of various cancer types. The results showed that: in each cancer type, MSI-H patients had TMB greater than 10, and 26.83% of MSI-H patients had TMB greater than 100 in colorectal cancer patients. The result of correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between the patient's age and the risk of MSI mutation ( P> 0.05). In addition to PAAD and LUAD, the expression of PD-L1 in MSI-H patients was higher than that in MSS patients in other cancer types( P< 0.05). The correlation analysis between PD-L1 expression and TMB in patients found that in colorectal cancer, the higher the expression of PD-L1, the higher the patient's TMB ( P< 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we explored the incidence of MSI-H in pan-cancer patients in China and found that the TMB was greater than 10 in patients with MSI-H. Compared with MSS patients, MSI-H patients have higher PD-L1 expression, and the higher the PD-L1 expression in colorectal cancer, the higher the TMB value of patients.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Verweij ◽  
M. E. Hamaker ◽  
D. D. E. Zimmerman ◽  
Y. T. van Loon ◽  
F. van den Bos ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Na Zhou ◽  
Li-Qiang Weng ◽  
Chun-Xia Feng ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: People suffer from schistosomiasis, leading to liver fibrosis, splenomegaly and thrombocytopenia. The effects of bevacizumab plus oxaliplatin or irinotecan-based chemotherapy regimens on platelets are different, but have not been determined. We conducted a retrospective analysis in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients evaluating the impact of bevacizumab on platelet, in order to find a more suitable plan for mCRC patients with a history of schistosomiasis.Methods: The medical records of all mCRC patients with a history of schistosomiasis who received FOLFOX or FOLFIRI with or without bevacizumab from September 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019 in Kunshan Hospital were reviewed. Platelet counts and spleen sizes were compared from the first cycle until completion of chemotherapy.Results: Evaluable splenic enlargement and thrombocytopenia results were obtained from 73 Bevacizumab-treated patients and 80 non-bevacizumab treated patients. In patients treated with oxaliplatin, the rates of splenic enlargement (19.5% vs. 66.7%, P=0.01) and thrombocytopenia (31.7% vs. 77.2%, P=0.02) were lower in the bevacizumab-treated cohort than that in the nonbevacizumab cohort. When stratified for irinotecan, there were no statistical differences of frequency of splenic enlargement between the two groups, however, the rates of thrombocytopenia were higher in the bevacizumab-treated cohort than that in the nonbevacizumab cohort (59.4% vs. 8.7%, P=0.01 ).Conclusion: The bevacizumab plus oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy regimen is more suitable for mCRC patients with a history of schistosomiasis, especially for lower platelet count patients.


2012 ◽  
Vol 204 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasim Caglayan ◽  
Ibrahim Oner ◽  
Yusuf Gunerhan ◽  
Pınar Ata ◽  
Neset Koksal ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 118-118
Author(s):  
Jingyuan Wang ◽  
Joshua Millstein ◽  
Fotios Loupakis ◽  
Sebastian Stintzing ◽  
Hiroyuki Arai ◽  
...  

118 Background: Antiangiogenic drug (AAD)-triggered oxygen and nutrient depletion through suppression of angiogenesis switches the glucose-dependent metabolism to lipid-dependent metabolism. Blocking fatty acid oxidation can enhance AAD-mediated anti-tumor effects in colorectal cancer. Previous reports suggested that polymorphisms of the lipid metabolism-related genes are associated with the increased risk of CRC and poor clinical outcome in CRC. Therefore, we hypothesized that genetic variants in the lipid metabolism pathway may predict first-line treatment outcome in mCRC pts. Methods: Genomic DNA from blood samples of pts enrolled in two independent randomized trials, FIRE-3 and MAVERICC, was genotyped through the OncoArray, a customized array manufactured by Illumina including approximately 530K SNP markers. The impact on outcome of 25 selected SNPs in 10 genes involved in the lipid metabolism pathway (CD36, FABP4, LPCAT1, LPCAT2, PPARG, CPT1A, ACSS2, SREBF1, FASN, ACACA) was analyzed. Those treated with FOLFIRI/ bevacizumab (bev) in FIRE-3 (n = 107) and MAVERICC (n = 163) served as discovery and validation cohorts respectively, while FIRE-3 FOLFIRI/ cetuximab (cet) (n = 129) arm was used as the control. Interaction between each SNP and treatment was evaluated in FIRE-3 (FOLFIRI/bev arm vs. FOLFIRI/cet arm). Results: In the discovery (FIRE-3 bev) cohort, pts with FASN rs4485435 any C allele (N = 21) showed significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (8.69 vs 13.48 months) compared to carriers of G/G (N = 62) in both univariate (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.88; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.57-5.29; p = 0.00037) and multivariate (HR = 2.87; 95%CI 1.4-5.9; p = 0.00675) analyses. These data were validated in the MAVERICC bev cohort in multivariate analysis (11.17 vs 14.06 months; HR = 2.07; 95%CI: 1.15-3.74; p = 0.02). Pts carrying any T allele in PPARG rs3856806 (N = 36) showed significantly longer overall survival (OS) (Not reached vs 42 months) than carriers of C/C (n = 93) in the FIRE-3 cet cohort in both univariate (HR = 0.4; 95%CI 0.17-0.92; p = 0.03) and multivariate (HR = 0.37; 95%CI 0.15-0.93; p = 0.02) analyses, but the association was not observed in the bev cohort of MAVERICC and FIRE-3. In the comparison of bev arm vs cet arm in FIRE-3, interactions were shown with FASN rs4485435 (p = 0.017) on PFS and PPARG rs3856806 (p = 0.059) on OS. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates for the first time that FASN polymorphism could predict outcomes of bev-based treatment in mCRC patients; Meanwhile PPARG polymorphism could predict outcomes of cet-based treatment in mCRC patients. These findings support a possible role of the lipid metabolism pathway in contributing to resistance to anti-VEGF/EGFR treatment.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e032964
Author(s):  
Charlotte Slagelse ◽  
H Gammelager ◽  
Lene Hjerrild Iversen ◽  
Kathleen D Liu ◽  
Henrik T Toft Sørensen ◽  
...  

ObjectivesIt is unknown whether preoperative use of ACE inhibitors (ACE-I) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) affects the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) after colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. We assessed the impact of preoperative ACE-I/ARB use on risk of AKI after CRC surgery.DesignObservational cohort study. Patients were divided into three exposure groups—current, former and non-users—through reimbursed prescriptions within 365 days before the surgery. AKI within 7 days after surgery was defined according to the current Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome consensus criteria.SettingPopulation-based Danish medical databases.ParticipantsA total of 9932 patients undergoing incident CRC surgery during 2005–2014 in northern Denmark were included through the Danish Colorectal Cancer Group Database.Outcome measureWe computed cumulative incidence proportions (risk) of AKI with 95% CIs for current, former and non-users of ACE-I/ARB, including death as a competing risk. We compared current and former users with non-users by computing adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) using log-binomial regression adjusted for demographics, comorbidities and CRC-related characteristics. We stratified the analyses of ACE-I/ARB users to address any difference in impact within relevant subgroups.ResultsTwenty-one per cent were ACE-I/ARB current users, 6.4% former users and 72.3% non-users. The 7-day postoperative AKI risk for current, former and non-users was 26.4% (95% CI 24.6% to 28.3%), 25.2% (21.9% to 28.6%) and 17.8% (17.0% to 18.7%), respectively. The aRRs of AKI were 1.20 (1.09 to 1.32) and 1.16 (1.01 to 1.34) for current and former users, compared with non-users. The relative risk of AKI in current compared with non-users was consistent in all subgroups, except for higher aRR in patients with a history of hypertension.ConclusionsBeing a current or former user of ACE-I/ARBs is associated with an increased risk of postoperative AKI compared with non-users. Although it may not be a drug effect, users of ACE-I/ARBs should be considered a risk group for postoperative AKI.


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