Background Small cell lung cancer is sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but local recurrence and distant metastasis occur shortly after treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the real-world value of anlotinib as a maintenance therapy in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) after first-line chemotherapy and consolidative thoracic radiotherapy (CTRT). Patients and Methods A total of 150 patients with ES-SCLC treated with first-line chemotherapy and CTRT from April 2017 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. After the completion of chemoradiotherapy, patients received anlotinib according to their desire. The primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) after the first diagnosis, and the secondary endpoints were prognostic factors and safety. Results The ORR and DCR of patients with ES-SCLC were 50.0% and 80.3%, respectively, in the anlotinib group and 42.9% and 69.0% in the no-maintenance therapy group. The 3-year OS rates were 27.6% and 12.6% in the anlotinib and observation groups (HR = 2.52, P = 0.003), and the median OS times were 23.8 months and 15.3 months. The 3-year PFS rates were 18.2% and 8.8% in the anlotinib and observation groups (HR = 1.76, P = 0.034) with median PFS times of 11.5 months and 8.8 months. After stratification on the basis of clinical response, patients who achieved CR plus PR after chemoradiotherapy had a longer median OS in the anlotinib and observation groups (34.0 months vs 24.8 months, HR = 2.40, P = 0.009). There were higher incidence rates of hand–foot syndrome (27.3% vs 10.5%, P = 0.001), gingival bleeding/hemoptysis (18.5% vs 4.8%, P = 0.015) and rash (33.3% vs 4.8%, P < 0.001) in the anlotinib group than in the observation group. Conclusion Maintenance therapy with anlotinib improved the survival of patients with ES-SCLC after first-line chemotherapy and CTRT. Owing to the small sample size of the real-world trial, the reliability of our study needs to be confirmed in more studies.
Abstract PEGylation is an effective way to improve the pharmacokinetic profiles of pharmaceutical proteins or peptides. But the relatively large and long PEG chains would be likely to shelter the active site of a small peptide because of its small size, compared with a protein. Therefore, the positions and numbers of PEGylation are crucial for the bioactivity of a PEGylated peptide. To elucidate the relationship between the PEGylated positions and bioactivity of a peptide drug, site‐specific PEGylations were performed on Zadaxin (Thymosin α 1, T α 1), which is a pharmaceutical peptide with an α ‐helix region, a β ‐turn region, and random coils. Site‐specific mono‐PEGylations of T α 1 in different conformational regions were realized through introducing one cysteine residue into the desired positions of the peptide, followed by a coupling reaction with a thiol‐attached maleimide‐PEG reagent. Primary data from IFN‐ γ production of splenocytes induced by Con A showed that the influence of PEGylation on Zadaxin was position‐dependent, and mostly, positive effects were observed after PEGylation, which indicated that the position of PEGylation is important for maintaining the bioactivity of a peptide.
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are important regulators of smoking behavior and tobacco carcinogenesis. We studied the association of the CHRNB3-A6 variant rs13280604 in relation to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Chinese populations. Two independent case–control studies were conducted. The first case–control study, consisted of 866 ESCC patients and 1621 healthy controls from Northern China, and the second case–control study consisted of 853 ESCC patients and 860 unrelated controls from Southern China. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate the associations of rs13280604 with cancer risk. We found that Rs13280604 GG/AG genotypes were significantly associated with increased risk for ESCC in both case–control studies from Northern [odds ratio (OR), 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.19–1.70, P = 1.1×10–4], Southern China (OR, 1.56, 95% CI, 1.26–1.93, P = 5.2×10–5), and the combined population of both studies (OR, 1.44, 95% CI, 1.26–1.65, P = 8.7×10–8), respectively. Our results suggest that this CHRNB3-A6 variant confers susceptibility to ESCC risk. However, future larger studies are needed to validate our finding.
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