Background Coronavirus disease 2019 has quickly turned into a global pandemic with close to 5 million cases and more than 320,000 deaths. Cancer patients constitute a group that is expected to be at risk and poor prognosis in COVID pandemic. We aimed to investigate how cancer patients are affected by COVID-19 infection, its clinical course and the factors affecting mortality. Methods In our single-center retrospective study, we included cancer patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 in our hospital. Demographic, clinical, treatment, and laboratory data were obtained from electronic medical records. Logistic regression methods were used to investigate risk factors associated with in-hospital death. Results In the hospital, 4489 patients were hospitalized with COVID infection and 77 were cancer patients. The mean age of cancer patients was 61.9 ± 10.9 and 44 of them were male (62%). While the mortality rate in non-cancer patients was 1.51% (n = 68), this rate was significantly higher in cancer patients, 23.9% (n = 17). The stage of the disease, receiving chemotherapy in the last 30 days also lymphopenia, elevated troponin I, d-dimer, CRP, and CT findings were associated with severe disease and mortality. Severe lung involvement (OR = 22.9, p = 0.01) and lymphopenia (OR = 0.99, p = 0.04) are the most important factors influencing survival in logistic regression. Conclusions The disease is more severe in cancer patients and mortality is significantly higher than non-cancer patients. These data show that it may be beneficial to develop dynamic prevention, early diagnosis and treatment strategies for this vulnerable group of patients who are affected by the infection so much.

This study showed that there was close distance between the sacral midline and the structures anterior to it. The close relationships, as well as the potential for anatomical variations, require the use of sacral and presacral imaging before presacral approach.

Background Nivolumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that selectively blocks the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1). Nowadays, immune checkpoint inhibitors such as nivolumab are used in the treatment of many different types of cancer. In prospective clinical trials, the duration of therapy with nivolumab has been defined as up to the time of progressive disease or treatment limiting toxicity. Case reports In this article, we present two advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients that were treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy in the second-line setting. They have received nivolumab for nine and five months, respectively. After discontinuation of immunotherapy agent because of socioeconomic reasons, they had a durable response. Management and outcome After the discontinuation of nivolumab in the absence of progression or toxicity, the clinic and radiologic response are still ongoing. Discussion Optimal duration of anti-PD-1 therapy has not been established. There are some reports that indicate the durable response for the patients who have interrupted immunotherapy because of toxicity. Here, we present two advanced NSCLC patients having a durable response after discontinuing the treatment in the absence of toxicity and disease progression. More extensive research is needed to determine which subgroups of patients treated with immunotherapy can cease treatment and maintain an ongoing response.

The current study showed that EGI, positive ESM and multicentricity were more often associated with HSIL/CIN II + III than with LSIL/CIN I. Moreover, the frequencies of EGI, multicentricity, and positive ESM increased with increasing severity of the cervical lesion. This result may influence the preference for the type of surgical procedure used for patients with cytological diagnosis of HSIL.