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Objective: To evaluate the potential relation between the ABO blood group and the risk of venous thrombosis in cancer patients with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Methods: The patients who underwent PICC catheterization in Beijing Cancer Hospital from January 2018 to October 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The general information, disease diagnosis, catheterization situation, and complications were recorded for each patient. Further, the blood group status was identified using the hospital information systems. Logistic and Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to identify the risk factors for symptomatic PICC-related thrombosis. Results: Among the 2315 patients, 131 had symptomatic thrombosis after PICC catheterization. The incidence of symptomatic thrombosis was lower in patients with blood type O when compared with that in patients with blood types other than O. The history of venous thrombosis, tumor category, arm circumference, and insertion attempts are risk factors associated with the PICC-related venous thromboembolism (VTE). After multivariable adjustment, insertion attempts and the non-O blood type were observed to remain associated with thrombosis. Conclusion: The risk of PICC-related thrombosis in patients with non-O blood type is significantly higher than that in patients with blood type O.

Cancer is a deadly disease with increasing incidence and mortality rates and affects the life quality of millions of people per year. The past 15 years have witnessed the rapid development of targeted therapy for cancer treatment, with numerous anticancer drugs, drug targets and related gene mutations been identified. The demand for better anticancer drugs and the advances in database technologies have propelled the development of databases related to anticancer drugs. These databases provide systematic collections of integrative information either directly on anticancer drugs or on a specific type of anticancer drugs with their own emphases on different aspects, such as drug-target interactions, the relationship between mutations in drug targets and drug resistance/sensitivity, drug-drug interactions, natural products with anticancer activity, anticancer peptides, synthetic lethality pairs and histone deacetylase inhibitors. We focus on a holistic view of the current situation and future usage of databases related to anticancer drugs and further discuss their strengths and weaknesses, in the hope of facilitating the discovery of new anticancer drugs with better clinical outcomes.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the health economics of patients with sepsis after gastrointestinal tumor operation in ICU.Methods: This case-control study used 1:1 propensity-score (PS) matched method and patients were matched according to tumor type, age and gender. The study group was composed of 181 patients with sepsis after operation of gastrointestinal tumor in ICU, while the control group was composed of 181 patients without sepsis after operation of gastrointestinal tumor. The medical expenses and length of stay in the hospital of these patients were analyzed. Results:The median of the total hospitalization cost for the study group was $26,038, which was 1.7 times of the control group (P<0.001). The costs of drugs, laboratory test, examination, treatment, operation, anesthesia, materials, ward and other costs in the study group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.001). The median length of stay in the hospital in the study group was 26 days, which were 12 days longer than that of the control group (P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in daily average cost between the two groups (P=0.103). Conclusions:In ICU, patients with sepsis after operation of gastrointestinal tumor increased the cost of hospitalization and prolonged the length of stay in the hospital than those without sepsis.

Background To explore the clinical profiles and outcomes of patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF) after esophagectomy. Methods We retrospectively analyzed cases of patients who had been diagnosed with ARF after esophagectomy and compared survivors with non-survivors to explore the risks that may affect their outcomes. Results In total, 62 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with ARF after esophagectomy between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2017. Of these patients, 69.4% needed mechanical ventilation, with an average time on the ventilator of 304 hours (304.33±374.37 hours). The average length of stay in the ICU and in the hospital were 14 days (14.48±17.64 days) and 50 days (50.15±37.28 days), respectively. Mortality in the ICU and 90 days after the operation was 6.5% and 16.1%, respectively. Compared with the survivors, the 90-day post-operative non-survivors had a poorer N stage in the TNM classification system. The causes of ARF included anastomotic leakage, pneumonia, vocal cord paralysis, sputum plugging, pulmonary embolism (PE), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARF induced by different factors occurred at different times and had different outcomes. The three most common reasons for mortality in the ICU were ARDS (33.33%), anastomotic leakage (11.76%), and pneumonia (10%). The three most common reasons for mortality in the 90-day post-operative period were pneumonia (40%), anastomotic leakage (23.53%), and ARDS and acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) (33.33%). Conclusions Anastomotic leakage, pneumonia, ARDS, and AECOPD were the main causes of death in ARF patients after esophagectomy. We found that the N stage in the TNM classification system may affect 90-day post-operative mortality in these patients.