Preoperative controlling nutritional status as an optimal prognostic nutritional index to predict the outcome for colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND The controlling nutritional status(CONUT)score effectively reflects a patient’s nutritional status,which is closely related to cancer prognosis.This study invest-igated the relationship between the CONUT score and prognosis after radical surgery for colorectal cancer,and compared the predictive ability of the CONUT score with other indexes.AIM To analyze the predictive performance of the CONUT score for the survival rate of colorectal cancer patients who underwent potentially curative resection.METHODS This retrospective analysis included 217 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal.The CONUT score was calculated based on the serum albumin level,total lymphocyte count,and total cholesterol level.The cutoff value of the CONUT score for predicting prognosis was 4 according to the Youden Index by the receiver operating characteristic curve.The associations between the CONUT score and the prognosis were performed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression analysis.RESULTS Using the cutoff value of the CONUT score,patients were stratified into CONUT low(n=189)and CONUT high groups(n=28).The CONUT high group had worse overall survival(OS)(P=0.013)and relapse-free survival(RFS)(P=0.015).The predictive performance of CONUT was superior to the modified Glasgow prognostic score,the prognostic nutritional index,and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio.Meanwhile,the predictive performances of CONUT+tumor node metastasis(TNM)stage for 3-year OS[area under the receiver operating characteristics curve(AUC)=0.803]and 3-year RFS(AUC=0.752)were no less than skeletal muscle mass index(SMI)+TNM stage.The CONUT score was negatively correlated with SMI(P<0.01).CONCLUSION As a nutritional indicator,the CONUT score could predict long-term outcomes after radical surgery for colorectal cancer,and its predictive ability was superior to other indexes.The correlation between the CONUT score and skeletal muscle may be one of the factors that play a predictive role.

Surface Patterns of a Tetrahedral Polyelectrolyte Brush Induced by Grafting Density and Charge Fraction

A tetrahedral polyelectrolyte brush in the presence of trivalent counterions is researched under the condition of good solution by mea ns of molecular dynamics simulati ons.Grafting density and charge fraction are varied to gen erate a series of surface patter ns.Lateral microphase separation happens and various interesting pinned patches appear at appropriate charge fraction and grafting density.Through a careful analysis on the brush thickness,the pair correlation functions,the distributions of net charge,and the four states of trivalent counterions in the brush,we find that the ordered surface patterns and special properties are induced by the pure electrostatic correlation effect of trivalent ions even in the good solvent.Furthermore,the dependences of electrostatic correlation on the charge fraction of tethered chains are evaluated for fixed grafting den sity.Also,our results can serve as a guide for precise control over the stimuli-responsive materials rational and self-assembly of nanoparticles.