METHODS: A total of 30 Longissimus thoracis samples from three sows were stored under vacuum conditions at 4 ± 2℃ for 27 days to acquire data. The freshness prediction model for pork loin employed partial least squares regression (PLSR) with Monte Carlo data augmentation. Total bacterial count (TBC) and volatile basic nitrogen (VBN), which exhibited increases correlating with metabolite changes during storage, were designated as freshness indicators. Metabolic contents of the sample were quantified using NMR.
RESULTS: A total of 64 metabolites were identified, with 34 and 35 showing high correlations with TBC and VBN, respectively. Lysine and malate for TBC (R2 = 0.886) and methionine and niacinamide for VBN (R2 = 0.909) were identified as the main metabolites in each indicator by Model 1. Model 2 predicted main metabolites using HSI spectral data. Model 3, which predicted freshness indicators with HSI spectral data, demonstrated high prediction coefficients; TBC R2p = 0.7220 and VBN R2p = 0.8392. Furthermore, the combination model (Model 4), utilizing HSI spectral data and predicted metabolites from Model 2 to predict freshness indicators, improved the prediction coefficients compared to Model 3; TBC R2p = 0.7583 and VBN R2p = 0.8441.
CONCLUSION: Combining HSI spectral data with metabolites correlated to the meat freshness may elucidate why certain HSI spectra indicate meat freshness and prove to be more effective in predicting the freshness state of pork loin compared to using only HSI spectral data.
METHODS: We did a retrospective study of patients with newly diagnosed ENKTL without any previous treatment history for the disease who were given non-anthracycline-based chemotherapies with or without upfront concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy with curative intent. A prognostic model to predict overall survival and progression-free survival on the basis of pretreatment clinical and laboratory characteristics was developed by filling a multivariable model on the basis of the dataset with complete data for the selected risk factors for an unbiased prediction model. The final model was applied to the patients who had complete data for the selected risk factors. We did a validation analysis of the prognostic model in an independent cohort.
FINDINGS: We did multivariate analyses of 527 patients who were included from 38 hospitals in 11 countries in the training cohort. Analyses showed that age greater than 60 years, stage III or IV disease, distant lymph-node involvement, and non-nasal type disease were significantly associated with overall survival and progression-free survival. We used these data as the basis for the prognostic index of natural killer lymphoma (PINK), in which patients are stratified into low-risk (no risk factors), intermediate-risk (one risk factor), or high-risk (two or more risk factors) groups, which were associated with 3-year overall survival of 81% (95% CI 75-86), 62% (55-70), and 25% (20-34), respectively. In the 328 patients with data for Epstein-Barr virus DNA, a detectable viral DNA titre was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. When these data were added to PINK as the basis for another prognostic index (PINK-E)-which had similar low-risk (zero or one risk factor), intermediate-risk (two risk factors), and high-risk (three or more risk factors) categories-significant associations with overall survival were noted (81% [95% CI 75-87%], 55% (44-66), and 28% (18-40%), respectively). These results were validated and confirmed in an independent cohort, although the PINK-E model was only significantly associated with the high-risk group compared with the low-risk group.
INTERPRETATION: PINK and PINK-E are new prognostic models that can be used to develop risk-adapted treatment approaches for patients with ENKTL being treated in the contemporary era of non-anthracycline-based therapy.
FUNDING: Samsung Biomedical Research Institute.