Incidence and risk factors of in-hospital venous thromboembolism in non-oncological urological inpatients:A single center experience

Objective To determine incidence and risk factors for venous thromboembolism(VTE)development of in-hospital VTE in urological inpatients who underwent non-oncological surgery in a tertiary hospital in China.Methods Consecutive 1453 inpatients who were admitted to a non-oncological urological ward in the tertiary hospital from January 1,2018 to December 31,2018 were enrolled in the study,and the VTE events were diagnosed by ultrasound or computed tomographic pulmonary angiography.Patients’occurrence of VTE and characteristics which may contribute to the development of VTE were collected and analyzed as incidence and risk factors.Results The incidence of VTE in non-oncological urological inpatients is 2.3%.In our cohort,patients who experienced previous VTE(adjusted odds ratios[aOR]14.272,95%CI 3.620-56.275),taking anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents before admission(aOR 10.181,95%CI 2.453-42.256),D-dimer(max)≥1μg/mL(aOR 22.456,95%CI 6.468-77.967),lower extremity swelling(aOR 10.264,95%CI 2.242-46.994),chest symptoms(aOR 79.182,95%CI 7.132-879.076),operation time of more than or equal to 180 min(aOR 10.690,95%CI 1.356-84.300),and Caprini score(max)of more than or equal to 5(aOR 34.241,95%CI 1.831-640.235)were considered as risk factors for VTE.Conclusion In this study,we found that the incidence of VTE in non-oncological surgery was about 2.3%,which was higher than some previous studies.Risk factors could be used for early detection and diagnosis of VTE.

Growing applications of FDG PET-CT imaging in non-oncologic conditions

As the number of clinical applications of 2-[fluorine 18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose(FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography(PET-CT) grows,familiarity with the conditions that can be diagnosed by this modality and when relevant pieces of additional information can be obtained becomes increasingly important for both requesting physicians and nuclear medicine physicians or radiologists who interpret the findings.Apart from its heavy use in clinical oncology,FDG PET-CT is widely used in a variety of non-oncologic conditions interconnecting to such disciplines as general internal medicine,infectious diseases,cardiology,neurology,surgery,traumatology,orthopedics,pediatrics,endocrinology,rheumatology,psychiatry,neuropsychology,and cognitive neuroscience.The aim of this review was to summarize the current evidence of FDG PET-CT applications in evaluating non-oncologic pathologies and the relevant information it can add to achieve a final diagnosis.

Repurposing non-oncology small-molecule drugs to improve cancer therapy: Current situation and future directions

Drug repurposing or repositioning has been well-known to refer to the therapeutic applications of a drug for another indication other than it was originally approved for.Repurposing non-oncology small-molecule drugs has been increasingly becoming an attractive approach to improve cancer therapy,with potentially lower overall costs and shorter timelines.Several non-oncology drugs approved by FDA have been recently reported to treat different types of human cancers,with the aid of some new emerging technologies,such as omics sequencing and artificial intelligence to overcome the bottleneck of drug repurposing.Therefore,in this review,we focus on summarizing the therapeutic potential of non-oncology drugs,including cardiovascular drugs,microbiological drugs,small-molecule antibiotics,anti-viral drugs,anti-inflammatory drugs,antineurodegenerative drugs,antipsychotic drugs,antidepressants,and other drugs in human cancers.We also discuss their novel potential targets and relevant signaling pathways of these old non-oncology drugs in cancer therapies.Taken together,these inspiring findings will shed new light on repurposing more non-oncology small-molecule drugs with their intricate molecular mechanisms for future cancer drug discovery.