U 46619 br sent the modified frailty score with
sent the modified frailty score, with a score of zero (lowest frailty mea-sure) indicating that they did not meet the cut off for any of the components, and a score of four (highest frailty measure) meaning that they met the cut-off for all components.
Cytokine Analysis: Peripheral fasting blood (10 mL) was drawn at pre- and post-chemotherapy time-points. Age-matched controls
were assessed at equivalent time-points. Extracted serum was stored at −80°C until analysis. Frozen serum was thawed in a 37°C water bath then immediately transferred to ice upon thawing. Serum samples were then centrifuged at 2000 ×g for one minute prior to analysis to re-move any particulates. Quantitative levels of IL-6, sTNFRI, and sTNFRII were measured with a MAGPIX® multiplex assay using xPONENT soft-ware (Luminex Corporation, Austin TX, USA). Millipore Human Cyto-kine single-plex (IL-6) and 2-plex (sTNFRI and sTNFRII) panels (Millipore Sigma, Burlington, MA, USA) with MagPlex beads were
Assessment 1
Assessment 2
945 Evaluable Patients
610 Included in Analysis
376 Patients with Cancer
No Blood Collected
144 Patients with Cancer
(Pre-Chemotherapy)
144 Patients with Cancer
(Pre-Chemotherapy)
19 Excluded Prior to Baseline
15 Overwhelmed
4 Medical Issue
234 Non-Cancer controls
92 Excluded
No Blood Collected
142 Non-Cancer controls
142 Non-Cancer controls
performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. Results were analyzed using Milliplex Analyst software.
2.4. Statistical Analysis
Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographics, clinical var-iables, health status, and frailty information. Chi-square tests were used to compare demographic and health status characteristics of patients with breast cancer and controls, at the pre- and post-chemotherapy time-points.
To determine if pre-chemotherapy inflammatory cytokine levels were predictive of post-chemotherapy frailty in patients with breast cancer, the median levels of the pre-chemotherapy levels of IL-6, sTNFRI, and sTNFRII were determined. Due to the fact that the distribu-tion of the cytokine and U 46619 levels were skewed, the median was used as the cutoff for analyses. Participants were separated into two groups based on whether their pre-chemotherapy level of IL-6, sTNFRI, and sTNFRII were above or below the median. The total post-chemotherapy frailty score was then determined for each participant. t-tests were used to evaluate the associations between pre-chemotherapy cytokine level (with the median as the cut-off) and post-chemotherapy frailty for patients and controls. Linear regressions were also used to confirm the associations of pre-chemotherapy cyto-kine level (with the median as the cut-off) with post-chemotherapy frailty for patients and controls, controlling for pre-chemotherapy frailty score.
Analysis were performed using SAS v. 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
P b .05 was used to assess statistical significance.
3. Results
3.1. Baseline Demographics
A total of 144 patients with breast cancer (mean age 60; range 50–76) and 142 non-cancer controls (mean age 59; range 50–81) were included (Fig. 1). Baseline characteristics of participants are Recombination nodules shown in Table 1. Among patients with breast cancer, 89.6% were white, 74.3% had some college or more, and 66.7% were married. In terms of cancer stage, 31.3% had stage I, 44.4% had stage II, and 22.9% had stage III breast cancer. Among the non-cancer controls, 95.8% were white, 81.7% had some or more college, and 74.6% were married. Except for race, there was no significant difference in base-line demographic variables between patients with breast cancer and non-cancer controls.
3.2. Comparison of Health Status Between Patients With Breast Cancer and Non-cancer Controls at Baseline
Table 1
reporting symptom interference with general physical activity
Baseline characteristics.
Non-Cancer
p Value
.001). Patients also reported more problems with anhedonia
no differences in any
of the health status
variables measured
Total Participants
144
142
n/a
Age, years
3.5. Frailty Comparisons between Patients with Breast Cancer and Non-
Race
0.045
cancer Controls at Baseline
At baseline, compared to non-cancer controls, a great propor-
Education
tion of patients with breast cancer reported weakness (20.3% vs.
Married
Many patients with breast cancer had a frailty score of one
Cancer Stage
(38.2%), while the majority of non-cancer controls had a score of