Prognostic impact of serum procalcitonin in non-small cell lung cancer. Tumori INTRODUCTION:Increased serum procalcitonin (PCT), a well-known biomarker for sepsis, has been reported in several cancer types. We aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of PCT in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS:Medical records of 51 consecutive patients with NSCLC (Aichi Medical University Hospital) admitted between July 2017 and July 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into PCT-low (PCT < 0.1 ng/mL) and PCT-high (PCT ⩾ 0.1 ng/mL) groups, and their clinical characteristics and survival were compared. RESULTS:In contrast to the PCT-low group (n = 24), the PCT-high group (n = 27) showed significantly worse Performance Status (PS) and overall survival (OS) (PS 0-2/3-4, 16/8 versus 12/15, = 0.034; median OS, not reached versus 127 days, < 0.001), irrespective of the presence of infection ( = 0.785). Multivariate analysis showed that the disease stage (IV versus I-III) and high PCT level (⩾0.1 versus <0.1 ng/mL) were significantly worse prognostic factors with hazard ratios of 3.706 ( = 0.023) and 3.951 ( = 0.010), respectively. CONCLUSION:The results suggest that serum PCT in NSCLC was elevated regardless of the presence of infection. Higher PCT levels are associated with poor PS and shorter OS in NSCLC. 10.1177/0300891620966647

Diagnostic Value of sCD163 Combined with PCT and HS-CRP in Patients with Gynecological Malignant Tumors and Fever. Shen Weiwei,Lai Shiping Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP OBJECTIVE:To explore diagnostic values of sCD163 with PCT and HS-CRP in diagnosing infection among patients with gynecological malignant tumors and fever. STUDY DESIGN:Cross-sectional, observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY:Huzhou Maternity & Child Health Care Hospital, China, from May 2018 to February 2020. METHODOLOGY:A total of 119 patients with gynecological malignant tumors and fever were divided into infected group (70 cases) and non-infected group (49 cases), according to the blood bacterial culture results and clinical symptoms. Serum PCT, HS-CRP, sCD163 level were compared. Pearson correlation was performed to analyse correlation of sCD163 with PCT and HS-CRP. The area under the curve (AUC) score was calculated from receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). RESULTS:Serum sCD163, PCT and HS-CRP levels in infected group were all elevated compared to non-infected group (all p <0.001). Pearson correlation analysis showed that sCD163 was positively correlated with PCT and HS-CRP (r = 0.596, p <0.001; r = 0.744, p <0.001, respectively). The AUC of sCD163 + PCT + HS-CRP combined detection for predicting early infection in patients with gynecological malignant tumors and fever was 0.905 (95% CI: 0.855-0.956), which was greater than sCD163, PCT, and HS-CRP detected alone. CONCLUSION:Combined detection of sCD163 with PCT and HS-CRP has a high diagnostic efficiency for early infection in patients with gynecological malignant tumors and fever, which is better than that of sCD163, PCT or HS-CRP alone. It can be used as an effective auxiliary examination method and an indicator for differential diagnosis. Key Words: sCD163, PCT, HS-CRP; Gynecology, Tumor, Infection, Diagnosis. 10.29271/jcpsp.2020.10.1053

The predictive value of postoperative C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1) for the early detection of pulmonary infection following laparoscopic general anesthesia for cervical cancer treatment. Liu Yu,Tian Lili,You Jiyue,Li Yao Annals of palliative medicine BACKGROUND:To analyze the predictive value of postoperative C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1) for the early detection of pulmonary infection following laparoscopic general anesthesia for cervical cancer treatment. METHODS:We enrolled 80 patients who underwent radical surgery for cervical cancer in our hospital from March 2018 to March 2020 and divided them into an infected group (n=34) and non-infected group (n=46) according to whether they were complicated by lung infection after surgery. The levels of CRP, PCT, and TREM-1 were compared between the two groups, and logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for pulmonary infection. The ROC curve was used to analyze the predictive value of the individual detection of CRP, PCT, or TREM-1 as well as their combined detection. RESULTS:The levels of CRP, PCT, and TREM-1 in the infected group were higher than those in non-the infected group 24 h after operation (P<0.05) and tumor TNM staging, previous lung disease, postoperative use of a ventilator, intraoperative use of antibacterial drugs, PCT, CRP, and ICAM-1 were significantly correlated with pulmonary infection (P<0.05). The postoperative application of a ventilator, PCT (increasing), CRP (increasing), and ICAM-1 (increasing) were all individual factors that could affect the development of pulmonary infection (P<0.05). ROC curve results showed that the critical score of combined detection was 3.026, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.786 (0.637-0.935), the sensitivity was 90.52%, and the specificity was 89.63%. CONCLUSIONS:The levels of PCT, CRP, and TREM-1 are abnormally increased in patients with pulmonary infection after laparoscopic general anesthesia for cervical cancer treatment. Their combined detection can be used as an effective means to predict the occurrence of pulmonary infections in the early stage and their level should direct timely intervention to improve the prognosis of patients. 10.21037/apm-21-554

Prognostic significance of procalcitonin in small cell lung cancer. Translational lung cancer research BACKGROUND:Procalcitonin (PCT) is a serological marker whose utility has been established in infectious disease areas. Although serum calcitonin is a prognostic predictor in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma, the clinical usefulness of PCT remains unclear in lung cancer patients. METHODS:As a discovery cohort, we retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who received first-line chemotherapy at our institution, and PCT blood levels were measured. As the validation cohort, PCT blood levels were prospectively evaluated in SCLC patients before first-line chemotherapy. The correlation between a PCT increase and prognosis was examined in the discovery and validation cohorts. RESULTS:Twenty-three SCLC patients and 26 NSCLC patients were enrolled as the discovery cohort, and 30 SCLC patients were enrolled as the validation cohort. The PCT level in SCLC patients was significantly higher than that in NSCLC patients. The PCT level was not associated with WBC count and weakly associated with the CRP level. In both the discovery and validation cohorts, the median survival time was significantly shorter in SCLC patients with PCT-high than in SCLC patients with PCT-normal (discovery; 11.7 89.7 months, P<0.005, validation; 9.6 22.6 months, P<0.005). CONCLUSIONS:It may be difficult to differentiate bacterial infections in SCLC patients by PCT, as PCT is elevated even in SCLC patients without infectious diseases. This is the first study to prospectively verify that pretreatment PCT levels have a significant negative correlation with prognosis in SCLC patients. 10.21037/tlcr-21-838