Capecitabine maintenance therapy for XT chemotherapy-sensitive patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer

Objective： To investigate the efficacy and safety of capecitabine maintenance therapy（MT） after initial capecitabine plus docetaxel（XT） chemotherapy in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer（m TNBC）.Methods： Fifty-five m TNBC patients treated with XT chemotherapy between May 2007 and June 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. When initial disease control was achieved by the combination chemotherapy, capecitabine was continued for 32 patients（MT）, while 23 patients remained without any treatment（nonMT）. We compared progression-free survival（PFS） and safety of both groups.Results： The median PFS of 55 patients was 8.1 months, overall median PFS time of 32 patients in the capecitabine MT group and 23 in the non-MT group was 10.1 vs. 6.7 months（P=0.032）, respectively. When compared PFS time of maintenance treatment, single-agent capecitabine prolonged PFS by 7.1 months, for non-MT patients, the PFS without any treatment was 3.1 months, and this between-group difference was statistically significant（P=0.003）. Adverse events, including of hematologic toxicity, gastrointestinal toxicities, hand-foot syndrome and abnormal liver function were not significantly different between two groups.Conclusions： After initial disease control was achieved with the XT combination chemotherapy, capecitabine MT can significantly prolong PFS time with a favorable safety profile in m TNBC patients.

Receptor Conversion between Primary Tumors and Distant Metastases in 121 Cases of Metastatic Breast Cancer

The article published in Vol.4 No.2 102-107, 2013 has been withdrawn by the authors for further revision. This paper will be re-submitted to IJCM after the authors revise it.

Management and operation of extra-large Fangcang hospitals:experience and lessons from containing the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in Shanghai,China

Introduction Omicron is more contagious and stealthier than the previous strains.The basic reproduction number of Omicron is around 8–12,whereas that of the previous mainstream strain Delta is only 5–8[1].Omicron’s symptoms are relatively mild[2]compared with Delta’s symptoms;however,Omicron’s transmission ability is very strong,and its risk to children and the elderly remains high[3].In addition,the vaccine’s preventive effect on Omicron has weakened.Therefore,Omicron can easily cause a rapid outbreak in a city.The population density of megacities and the limited public health resources further exacerbate the difficulty of Omicron prevention and control.

Continuous-flow synthesis and crystal modification of Pigment Red 53

In this study,a continuous-flow procedure containing four steps has been developed to synthesize Pigment Red 53 and modify its crystal structure.This process avoided the problems of conveying highly insoluble reaction intermediates by removing intermediate operating steps.After optimization,the overall yield of Pigment Red 53:1 reached 97.1%in the total residence time of 80 s by this diazotizationcoupling-laking-crystal transition process.From batch to continuous flow,the purity of products increased from 97.1%to 98.2%and the median diameter of pigment particles decreased from 14μm to 1.9μm.This process achieved a similar crystal transition effect in 18 s as in batch,producingα,δandνcrystals of Pigment Red 53:2 as expected.In conclusion,this continuous-flow procedure displays advantages in both synthesis and crystal transition,indicating another potential use for industrial application.

Monodispersed SWNTs Assembled Coating Layer as an Alternative to Graphene with Enhanced Alkali-ion Storage Performance

Graphene coating is commonly used to improve the performance of electrode materials,while its steric hindrance effect hampers fast ion transport with compromised rate capability.Herein,a unique single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWNTs)coating layer,as an alternative to graphene,has been developed to improve the battery behavior of iron-based anodes.Benefiting from the structure merits of mesoporous SWNTs layer for fast electron/ion transport and hollow Fe_(3)O_(4) for volume accommodation,as-prepared Fe_(3)O_(4)@SWNTs exhibited excellent lithium storage performance.It delivers a high capacity,excellent rate capability,and long lifespan with capacities of 582 mA·h·g^(-1) at 5 A·g^(-1) and 408 mA·h·g^(-1) at 8 A·g^(-1) remained after 1000 cycles.Such performance is better than graphene-coated Fe_(3)O_(4) and other SWNT-Fe_(3)O_(4) architectures.Besides,SWNTs coating is also used to improve the sodium and potassium storage performance of FeSe_(2).The kinetics analysis and ex-situ experiment further reveal the effect of SWNTs coating for fast electron/ion transfer kinetics and good structure stability,thus leading to the superior performance of SWNTs-coated composites.

Boosting Stable and Fast Potassium Storage of Iron Sulfide through Rational Yolk-Shell Design and Ni Doping

Metal sulfides have been regarded as promising anodes for potassium-ion batteries(PIBs)due to their high theoretical capacities,while the performance is limited by their intrinsic poor conductivity and large volume fluctuation during the insertion/extraction of large potassium ion.Herein,the battery performance of iron sulfide anode is significantly enhanced through yolk-shell(Y-S)structure design and nickel doping,aiming to realize good structure stability and superior electron/ion transportation.For potassium storage,as-prepared Y-S Ni-FeS_(2)@C shows excellent cyclic performance and sustains high capacities of 328 mA h g^(-1)after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g^(-1)and 226 mA h g^(-1)after 1000 cycles at 1 A g^(-1).Especially,it displays a superior rate capacity of 200 mA h g^(-1)at 20 A g^(-1),higher than that of Y-S FeS_(2)@C and most as-reported metal sulfide anodes for PIBs.The experimental analysis and theoretical calculation illuminate the effect of Ni-doping on decreasing the particle size of iron sulfide and enhancing the ion/electron transport ability,thus accounting for the exceptional rate capability of Y-S Ni-FeS_(2)@C composite.