7 research outputs found
Salvatore Foderaro, giuspubblicista e politico calabrese
Intervento tenuto in occasione del convegno Giuspubblicisti calabresi: dallo Stato nazionale alla (ri)globalizzazione, del 6 ottobre 2023
Comparison of the effects of simvastatin versus hormone replacement therapy in the treatment of postmenopausal women with primary hypercholesterolemia
Relation between drug therapy-based comorbidity indices, Charlson's comorbidity index, polypharmacy and mortality in three samples of older adults
Background: Comorbidity indexes were designed in order to measure how the disease burden of a patient is related to different clinical outcomes such as mortality, especially in older and intensively treated people. Charlson's Comorbidity Index (CCI) is the most widely used rating system, based on diagnoses, but when this information is not available therapy-based comorbidity indices (TBCI) are an alternative: among them, Drug Derived Complexity Index (DDCI), Medicines Comorbidity Index (MCI), and Chronic Disease Score (CDS) are available.
Aims: This study assessed the predictive power for 1-year mortality of these comorbidity indices and polypharmacy.
Methods: Survival analysis and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis were conducted on three Italian cohorts: 2,389 nursing home residents (Korian), 4,765 and 633 older adults admitted acutely to geriatric or internal medicine wards (REPOSI and ELICADHE).
Results: Cox's regression indicated that the highest levels of the CCI are associated with an increment of 1-year mortality risk as compared to null score for all the three samples. DDCI and excessive polypharmacy gave similar results but MCI and CDS were not always statistically significant. The predictive power with the ROC curve of each comorbidity index was poor and similar in all settings.
Conclusion: On the whole, comorbidity indices did not perform well in our three settings, although the highest level of each index was associated with higher mortality
Significance of PD-L1 in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
Importance Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have broadened the metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) therapeutic scenario. The association of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) with response and survival in patients treated with ICIs is still controversial. Objectives To evaluate the association of PD-L1 with response rate and overall survival among patients with mUC treated with ICIs. Data Sources PubMed, Embase, American Society of Clinical Oncology and European Society for Medical Oncology Meeting Libraries, and Web of Science were searched up to December 10, 2023. Study Selection Two authors independently screened the studies. Included studies were randomized and nonrandomized clinical trials enrolling patients with mUC receiving ICIs with available overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), or overall response rate (ORR) data, separated between patients with PD-L1-positive and -negative tumors. Data Extraction and Synthesis The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline was followed. Two reviewers independently extracted data. Fixed- or random-effects models were used depending on the heterogeneity among the studies. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes were odds ratios (ORs) for ORR and hazard ratios (HRs) for OS, comparing patients with PD-L1-positive tumors and patients with PD-L1-negative tumors. Secondary outcomes were the PFS HR between patients with PD-L1-positive and -negative tumors and OS HR between ICI arms and non-ICI arms of only randomized clinical trials. Results A total of 14 studies were selected, comprising 5271 patients treated with ICIs (2625 patients had PD-L1-positive tumors). The ORR was 13.8% to 78.6% in patients with PD-L1-positive tumors and 5.1% to 63.2% in patients with PD-L1-negative tumors, with an association between PD-L1 status and ORR favoring patients with PD-L1-positive tumors (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.47-2.56; P < .001). Median OS ranged from 8.4 to 24.1 months in patients with PD-L1-positive tumors and from 6.0 to 19.1 months in patients with PD-L1-negative tumors. The pooled HR showed a significant reduction for patients with PD-L1-positive tumors compared with those with PD-L1-negative tumors in the risk of death (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.89; P = .003) and risk of progression (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.44-0.69; P < .001) when ICIs were administered. PD-L1 is not likely to be a predictive biomarker of ICI response. Conclusions and Relevance This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that PD-L1 expression is associated with improved ORR, OS, and PFS for patients with mUC who receive ICIs, but it is unlikely to be useful as a predictive biomarker. Developing predictive biomarkers is essential to select patients most likely to benefit from ICIs and avoid toxic effects and financial burden with these agents
