Chinese medical journal
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Chinese medical journal · Apr 2020
ReviewBreast cancer immunology and immunotherapy: targeting the programmed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death protein ligand-1.
Historically, breast cancer has been regarded as an immunogenic "cold" tumor. However, the discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors has made immunotherapy becoming an emerging new treatment modality for breast cancer. This review discusses the immune system, immune features of breast cancer, and the programmed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death protein ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors used in the treatment of breast cancer. ⋯ Increasing breast cancer immunogenicity and modulating the tumor microenvironment has been reported to improve the therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy. Recent clinical trials involving PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors monotherapy in breast cancer has revealed little efficacy, which highlights the need to develop combinations of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors with chemotherapy, molecularly targeted therapies, and other immunotherapies to maximize the clinical efficacy. Collectively, the immunotherapy might be a promising therapeutic strategy for breast cancer and several clinical trials are still on-going.
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Chinese medical journal · Apr 2020
Quantification of atherosclerotic plaque volume in coronary arteries by computed tomographic angiography in subjects with and without diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is considered a cardiovascular risk factor. The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and volume of coronary artery plaque in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) vs. those without DM. ⋯ The coronary artery atherosclerotic plaques were significantly higher in diabetic patients than those in non-diabetic patients.
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Chinese medical journal · Apr 2020
Differences of maternal mortality rate between Shanghai and New York city from the perspective of regulatory policy.
Regulatory policy (RP) is known as a major factor to improve health care system performance. A significant difference in maternal mortality rates (MMRs) was observed between New York city (NYC) and Shanghai (SH), both first-class international metropolises. This study aims to adopt a quantitative evaluation model to analyze whether RP differences contribute to the different MMRs of the two cities. ⋯ Compared with NYC, the more comprehensive and effective maternal health care RPs in SH had a stronger impact on MMR control, which contributed to the differences between the two cities' MMRs to some extent. The methods and indicators we adopted for assessment are reasonable and comparable.
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Chinese medical journal · Apr 2020
Prolonged progression-free survival and overall survival are associated with diabetes mellitus but inversely associated with levels of blood glucose in patients with lung cancer.
Previous studies have provided conflicting evidence about the increased overall survival (OS) in lung cancer patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) compared with those without DM. This study assessed progression-free survival (PFS)/OS in lung cancer patients with or without DM and tentatively analyzed the impact of blood glucose levels on PFS/OS in lung cancer patients. ⋯ Lung cancer patients with DM have prolonged PFS and OS compared with those without DM, and the level of blood glucose was inversely associated with PFS. The current results indicate that PFS may be a meaningful intermediate endpoint for OS and that the levels of blood glucose hopefully represent a prognostic factor in lung cancer patients.