Occult lung cancer manifesting within the first year after stroke

Malignancy-associated ischemic stroke: Implications for diagnostic and therapeutic workup

BACKGROUND

Patients with malignancies have an increased risk of suffering ischemic stroke via several mechanisms such as coagulation dysfunction and other malignancy-related effects as well as iatrogenic causes. Moreover, stroke can be the first sign of an occult malignancy, termed as malignancy-associated ischemic stroke (MAS). Therefore, timely diagnostic assessment and targeted management of this complex clinical situation are critical.

FINDINGS

Patients with both stroke and malignancy have atypical ages, risk factors, and often exhibit malignancy-related symptoms and multiple lesions on neuroimaging. New biomarkers such as eicosapentaenoic acid and blood mRNA profiles may help in distinguishing MAS from other strokes. In terms of treatment, malignancy should not be considered a contraindication, given comparable rates of recanalization and complications between stroke patients with or without malignancies.

CONCLUSION

In this review, we summarize the latest developments in diagnosing and managing MAS, especially stroke with occult malignancies, and provide new recommendations from recently emerged clinical evidence for diagnostic and therapeutic workup strategies.

Transcriptomic analysis reveals the potential biological mechanism of AIS and lung adenocarcinoma

Introduction

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) are associated with some of the highest morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Despite reports on their strong correlation, the causal relationship is not fully understood. The study aimed to identify and annotate the biological functions of hub genes with clinical diagnostic efficacy in AIS and LUAD.

Methods

Transcriptome and single-cell datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) upregulated in AIS and LUAD and found 372 genes intersecting both datasets. Hub genes were identified using protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, and the diagnostic and prognostic utility of these hub genes was then investigated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, survival analysis, and univariable Cox proportional hazard regression. Single-cell analysis was used to detect whether the hub genes were expressed in tumor epithelial cells. The immune microenvironment of AIS and LUAD was assessed using the CIBERSORT algorithm. The protein expression of these hub genes was tracked using the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). We calculated the number of positive cells using the digital pathology software QuPath. Finally, we performed molecular docking after using the Enrichr database to predict possible medicines.

Results

We identified the molecular mechanisms underlying hub genes in AIS and LUAD and found that CCNA2, CCNB1, CDKN2A, and CDK1 were highly expressed in AIS and LUAD tissue samples compared to controls. The hub genes were mainly involved in the following pathways: the cell cycle, cellular senescence, and the HIF-1 signaling pathway. Using immunohistochemical slices from the HPA database, we confirmed that these hub genes have a high diagnostic capability for AIS and LUAD. Further, their high expression is associated with poor prognosis. Finally, curcumin was tested as a potential medication using molecular docking modeling.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that the hub genes we found in this study contribute to the development and progression of AIS and LUAD by altering the cellular senescence pathway. Thus, they may be promising markers for diagnosis and prognosis.

Analysis of Hospitalization Costs in Patients Suffering from Cerebral Infarction along with Varied Comorbidities

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to study the influence of comorbidities on hospitalization costs for inpatients with cerebral infarction.

METHODS

The data from the medical records pertaining to 76,563 inpatients diagnosed with cerebral infarction were collected from public hospital records for the period between 1 January 2020 and 30 December 2020 in Gansu Province. EpiData 3.1 software was used for data collation, and SPSS 25.0 was used for data analysis. Numbers and percentages were calculated for categorical variables, the chi-squared test was used to compare differences between groups, and multiple independent-sample tests (Kruskal-Wallis H test, test level α = 0.05) and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the influence of different types of comorbidity on hospitalization costs.

RESULTS

Among the 76,563 cerebral infarction inpatients, 41,400 were male (54.07%); the average age of the inpatients was 67.68 ± 10.75 years (the 60~80-year-old group accounted for 65.69%). Regarding the incidence of varied chronic disease comorbidities concomitant with cerebral infarction, hypertension was reported as the most frequent, followed by heart disease and chronic pulmonary disease. The average hospitalization cost of cerebral infarction inpatients is US $1219.66; the hospitalization cost increases according to the number of comorbidities with which a patient suffers (H = 404.506, p < 0.001); Regarding the types of comorbidities, the hospitalization cost of cancer was the highest, at US $1934.02, followed by chronic pulmonary disease (US $1533.02). Regarding the cost of hospitalization for combinations of comorbidities, cerebral infarction + chronic pulmonary disease was the most costly (US $1718.90), followed by cerebral infarction + hypertension + chronic pulmonary disease (US $1530.60). In the results of multiple linear regression analysis, cerebral infarction with chronic pulmonary disease had significant effects on hospitalization costs (β = 0.181, p < 0.001), drug costs (β = 0.144, p < 0.001) and diagnosis costs (β = 0.171, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Comorbidities are significantly associated with high hospitalization costs for cerebral infarction patients. Furthermore, relevant health departments should build preventative and control systems to reduce the risk of comorbidities, as well as to improve hospital clinical pathway management and to strengthen and refine the cost-control management of cerebral infarction from the perspective of comorbidities.

Occult Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: An Underappreciated Disease

Background: The number of researches on occult non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is modest. Herein, we defined the clinicopathological features, prognosis and survival outcome of this underappreciated tumor, with purpose of obtaining a clearer picture on this disease. Methods: The entire cohort was categorized into two groups (occult NSCLC and other NSCLC) and further into five groups (occult, T1, T2, T3 and T4). A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized Cox regression model was performed to identify the prognostic indicators. A nomogram and a risk-classifying system were formulated. Kaplan–Meier with Log-rank method was carried out to compare overall survival (OS) and cancer specific survival (CSS) differences between groups. Results: 59,046 eligible NSCLC cases (occult NSCLC: 1158 cases; other NSCLC: 57,888 cases) were included. Occult NSCLC accounted for 2.0% of the included cases. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, sex, tumor location, histology, grade and surgery were prognostic factors for OS. The corresponding prognostic nomogram classified occult NSCLC patients into low-risk and high-risk group, and its performance was acceptable. Survival curves demonstrated that occult NSCLC patients exhibited worse survivals than other NSCLC. In further analyses, the survival of low-risk occult NSCLC and stage T3 NSCLC were comparable, and the high-risk occult NSCLC patients still owned the worst survival rate. Conclusions: Occult NSCLC was an aggressive tumor with poor prognosis, and surgery was the preferred treatment. More attention should be paid to this overlooked disease due to no evidence of tumor imaging.

Incidence and survival analyses for occult lung cancer between 2004 and 2015: a population-based study

Background

This study aimed to investigate the incidence and long-term survival outcomes of occult lung cancer between 2004 and 2015.

Methods

A total of 2958 patients were diagnosed with occult lung cancer in the 305,054 patients with lung cancer. The entire cohort was used to calculate the crude incidence rate. Eligible 52,472 patients (T1-xN0M0, including 2353 occult lung cancers) were selected from the entire cohort to perform survival analyses after translating T classification according to the 8th TNM staging system. Cancer-specific survival curves for different T classifications were presented.

Results

The crude incidence rate of occult lung cancer was 1.00 per 100 patients, and it was reduced between 2004 and 2015 [1.4 per 100 persons in 2004; 0.6 per 100 persons in 2015; adjusted risk ratio = 0.437, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.363–0.527]. In the survival analysis, there were 2206 death events in the 2353 occult lung cancers. The results of the multivariable analysis revealed that the prognoses with occult lung cancer were similar to patients with stage T3N0M0 (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.054, 95% CI 0.986–1.127, p = 0.121). Adjusted survival curves presented the same results. In addition, adjusted for other confounders, female, age ≤ 72 years, surgical treatment, radiotherapy, adenocarcinoma, and non-squamous and non-adenocarcinoma non-small cell carcinoma were independent protective prognostic factors (all p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Occult lung cancer was uncommon. However, the cancer-specific survival of occult lung cancer was poor, therefore, we should put the assessment of its prognoses on the agenda. Timely surgical treatment and radiotherapy could improve survival outcomes for those patients. Besides, we still need more research to confirm those findings.