ObjectivesDerived neutrophil-to-lymphocytes ratio (dNLR) has recently been reported as a novel potential biomarker associated with prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, evidence for the prognostic utility of dNLR in patients with NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains inconsistent. The objective of this work was to evaluate the association between pretreatment dNLR and prognosis of patients with NSCLC treated with ICIs.DesignThis study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.Data sourcesPubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible studies up to 16 October 2020.Eligibility criteria(1) Human subjects receiving ICIs therapy and who had been diagnosed with NSCLC; (2) the baseline values of dNLR were obtained; (3) the objective of the study was to investigate the relationships between dNLR and overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in NSCLC and (4) HR and 95% CI were displayed in the original article or could be extracted from Kaplan-Meier curves.Data extraction and synthesisTwo investigators extracted data independently. Data synthesis was performed via systematic review and meta-analysis of eligible cohort studies. Meta-analysis was performed with Cochran’s Q test and I2 statistics. Publication bias of studies was assessed by Begg’s test and Egger’s test. We used V.12.0 of the Stata statistical software.ResultsThis analysis included eight studies (2456 cases) on the prognostic utility of dNLR in ICI therapy for NSCLC. The results indicate that higher dNLR significantly predicted poor OS (HR=1.65, 95% CI 1.46 to 1.88; p<0.001) and PFS (HR=1.38, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.55; p<0.001). Subgroup analyses of OS-related studies indicated that there were similar results in stratifications by ethnicity, sample size, type of HR and dNLR cut-off value. As for PFS-related studies, subgroup analyses showed no significant difference in Asian populations. Publication biases were not detected using Begg’s test and Egger’s linear regression test.ConclusionsThis meta-analysis indicated that elevated pretreatment dNLR may be a negative prognostic predictor for patients with NSCLC treated with ICIs. More large-sample and higher-quality studies are warranted to support our findings.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021214034.

Recent therapeutic advances have significantly improved the short- and long-term survival rates in patients with heart disease and cancer. Survival in cancer patients may, however, be accompanied by disadvantages, namely, increased rates of cardiovascular events. Chemotherapy-related cardiac dysfunction is an important side effect of anticancer therapy. While advances in cancer treatment have increased patient survival, treatments are associated with cardiovascular complications, including heart failure (HF), arrhythmias, cardiac ischemia, valve disease, pericarditis, and fibrosis of the pericardium and myocardium. The molecular mechanisms of cardiotoxicity caused by cancer treatment have not yet been elucidated, and they may be both varied and complex. By identifying the functional genetic variations responsible for this toxicity, we may be able to improve our understanding of the potential mechanisms and pathways of treatment, paving the way for the development of new therapies to target these toxicities. Data from studies on genetic defects and pharmacological interventions have suggested that many molecules, primarily those regulating oxidative stress, inflammation, autophagy, apoptosis, and metabolism, contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiotoxicity induced by cancer treatment. Here, we review the progress of genetic research in illuminating the molecular mechanisms of cancer treatment-mediated cardiotoxicity and provide insights for the research and development of new therapies to treat or even prevent cardiotoxicity in patients undergoing cancer treatment. The current evidence is not clear about the role of pharmacogenomic screening of susceptible genes. Further studies need to done in chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity.

Chemotherapy is widely used in the treatment of cancer patients, but the cardiotoxicity induced by chemotherapy is still a major concern to most clinicians. Currently, genetic methods have been used to detect patients with high risk of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity (CIC), and our study evaluated the correlation between genomic variants and CIC. The systematic literature search was performed in the PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), the Embase database, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) and Wanfang database from inception until June 2020. Forty-one studies were identified that examined the relationship between genetic variations and CIC. And these studies examined 88 different genes and 154 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our study indicated 6 variants obviously associated with the increased risk for CIC, including CYBA rs4673 (pooled odds ratio, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.13–3.30), RAC2 rs13058338 (2.05; 1.11–3.78), CYP3A5 rs776746 (2.15; 1.00–4.62) ABCC1 rs45511401 (1.46; 1.05–2.01), ABCC2 rs8187710 (2.19; 1.38–3.48), and HER2-Ile655Val rs1136201 (2.48; 1.53–4.02). Although further studies are required to validate the diagnostic and prognostic roles of these 6 variants in predicting CIC, our study emphasizes the promising benefits of pharmacogenomic screening before chemotherapy to minimize the CIC.

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Background Increasing attention has been paid to the potential relationship between gut and lung. The bacterial dysbiosis in respiratory tract and intestinal tract is related to inflammatory response and the progress of lung diseases, and the pulmonary diseases could be improved by regulating the intestinal microbiome. This study aims to generate the knowledge map to identify major the research hotspots and frontier areas in the field of gut–lung axis. Materials and methods Publications related to the gut–lung axis from 2011 to 2021 were identified from the Web of Science Core Collection. CiteSpace 5.7.R2 software was used to analyze the publication years, journals, countries, institutions, and authors. Reference co-citation network has been plotted, and the keywords were used to analyze the research hotspots and trends. Results A total of 3315 publications were retrieved and the number of publications per year increased over time. Our results showed that Plos One (91 articles) was the most active journal and The United States (1035 articles) published the most articles. We also observed the leading institution was the University of Michigan (48 articles) and Huffnagle Gary B, Dickson Robert P and Hansbro Philip M, who have made outstanding contributions in this field. Conclusion The Inflammation, Infection and Disease were the hotspots, and the regulation of intestinal flora to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in lung cancer was the research frontier. The research has implications for researchers engaged in gut–lung axis and its associated fields.