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Rituximab is associated with a higher incidence of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia infection. Pneumocystis prophylaxis is advised in many immunocompromised populations treated with rituximab. However, the beneficial effect of pneumocystis prophylaxis in HIV-uninfected, rituximab-treated non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients has not been assessed. Thus, we conducted this retrospective study to explore pneumocystis infection in HIV-uninfected NHL patients who received at least three courses of chemotherapy without haematopoietic stem cell transplantation using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients who had rituximab-based chemotherapy were included in the experimental (rituximab) group, while the rest of the patients who did not receive any rituximab-based chemotherapy throughout the study period formed the control group. The prevalence rate of pneumocystis infection in the rituximab group (N = 7,554) was significantly higher than that in the control group (N = 4,604) (2.95% vs. 1.32%). The onset of pneumocystis infection occurred between 6 and 16 weeks after chemotherapy. Patients who had pneumocystis prophylaxis, whether or not they had a pneumocystis infection later in their treatment course, had significantly better first-year survival rates (73% vs. 38%). Regular pneumocystis prophylaxis should be considered in this group of patients.

Thromboembolism (TE) is a common complication in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Immunomodulatory agents, e.g., thalidomide, have expanded the therapeutic options for treating myeloma; however, Western countries report a high incidence of thrombosis in thalidomide-treated MM patients who lack thromboprophylaxis. A Korean trial reported low TE incidence in thalidomide-treated myeloma patients (39% were given aspirin prophylactically). We aimed to elucidate the TE frequency in MM patients in Taiwan who were treated with thalidomide without TE prophylaxis. We retrospectively collected the records of MM patients who had used thalidomide from a single institute between 2004 and 2010, combined these records with two other Taiwanese studies, and compared all three with the Korean trial. In the current Taiwanese series, five of 144 patients (3.5%) developed TE as follows: three (2.1%) were venous and two (1.3%) were arterial. Only 6.1% of the patients had undergone TE prophylaxis, which is less than in the Korean trial (38.9%, p < 0.05). Of the patients in the relapsed/refractory cohort (n = 114) who were given thalidomide alone, none (0/52) developed venous TE (VTE); however, two patients (2/35, 5.7%) who were given thalidomide-dexamethasone as a salvage treatment developed VTE. In the thrombosis cohort, four patients (80%) were treated with thalidomide plus dexamethasone. In conclusion, the frequency of thalidomide-related TE in myeloma patients without effective TE prophylaxis was low in Taiwan. In relapsed/refractory myeloma patients, the VTE frequency was slightly lower compared with Western patients irrespective of treatment with thalidomide alone or combined with dexamethasone. Even in low TE incidence areas, thalidomide combined with dexamethasone was more thrombogenic compared with others.

Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune checkpoint molecule that can regulate immune responses in the tumor microenvironment (TME); however, the clinical applications of PD-L1 in early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between PD-L1 expression and survival outcome and explore its relevant immune responses in CRC. PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining to determine the tumor proportion score and combined positive score (CPS) in a Taiwanese CRC cohort. The oncomine immune response research assay was conducted for immune gene expression analyses. CRC datasets from the TCGA database were reappraised for PD-L1-associated gene enrichment analyses using GSEA. The high expression of PD-L1 (CPS ≥ 5) was associated with longer recurrence-free survival (p = 0.031) and was an independent prognostic factor as revealed by multivariate analysis. High PD-L1 expression was related to six immune-related gene signatures, and CXCL9 is the most significant overexpressed gene in differential analyses. High CXCL9 expression correlated with increased infiltration levels of immune cells in the TME, including CD8+ T lymphocytes and M1 macrophages. These findings suggest that high PD-L1 expression is a prognostic factor of early-stage CRC, and CXCL9 may play a key role in regulating PD-L1 expression.