Body mass index does not affect the survival of pancreatic cancer patients

AIM to evaluate the association of body mass index(b MI) with the overall survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC) patients.METHODS A retrospective analysis of PDAC patients diagnosed in the National Cancer Center of China between January 1999 and December 2014 was performed. these patients were categorized into four b MI groups(< 18.5, 18.5-22.9, 23-27.4 and ≥ 27.5 kg/m2). χ2 tests for comparison of the proportions of categorical variables, and Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables were employed. Survival analysis was performed with the Kaplan-Meyer method. their HRs of mortality and 95%CIs were estimated using the Cox proportional hazards model.RESULTS With a median age of 59.6 years(range: 22.5-84.6 years), in total 1783 PDAC patients were enrolled in this study. their mean usual b MI was 24.19 ± 3.53 for the whole cohort. More than half of the patients(59.3%) experienced weight loss during the disease onset and progression. Compared with healthy-weight individuals, newly diagnosed patients who were overweight or obese had more severe weight loss during their disease onset and progression(P < 0.001). Individuals who were overweight or obese were associated with positive smoking history(P < 0.001). A significant difference in comorbidity of diabetes(P = 0.044) and coronary artery disease(P < 0.001) was identified between high b MI and normal-weight patients. After a median follow-up of 8 mo, the survival analysis showed no association between b MI and the overall survival(P = 0.90, n = 1783). When we stratified the whole cohort by pancreatic cancer stage, no statistically significant association between b MI and overall survival was found for resectable(P = 0.99, n = 217), unresectable locally advanced(P = 0.90, n = 316) and metastatic patients(P = 0.88, n = 1250), respectively. the results did not change when we used the b MI at diagnosis.CONCLUSION Our results showed no significance of b MI for the overall survival of PDAC patients.

Correlation between metastatic lymph node ratio and prognosis in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

AIM: To investigate the prognostic value of metastaticlymph node ratio(MLNR) in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(ECC) patients undergoing radical resection.METHODS: Seventy-eight patients with ECC were enrolled.Associations between various clinicopathologic factors and prognosis were investigated by KaplanMeier analyses.The Cox proportional-hazards model was used for multivariate survival analysis.RESULTS: The overall three- and five-year survival rates were 47.26% and 23.99%, respectively.MLNR of 0, 0-0.2, 0.2-0.5, and > 0.5 corresponded to fiveyear survival rates of 28.59%, 21.60%, 18.84%, and 10.03%, respectively.Univariate analysis showed that degree of tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, MLNR, tumor-node-metastasis(TNM) stage, and margin status were closely associated with postoperative survival in ECC patients(P < 0.05).Multivariate analysis showed that MLNR and TNM stage were independent prognostic factors after pancreaticoduodenectomy(HR = 2.13, 95%CI: 1.45-3.11; P < 0.01; and HR = 1.97, 95%CI: 1.17-3.31; P = 0.01, respectively).The median survival time for MLNR > 0.5, 0.2-0.5, 0-0.2, and 0 was 15 mo, 24 mo, 23 mo, and 35.5 mo, respectively.There were statistical differences in survival time between patients with different MLNR(χ2 = 15.38; P < 0.01).CONCLUSION: MLNR is an independent prognostic factor for ECC patients after radical resection and is useful for predicting postoperative survival.