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Publications (346)
BACKGROUND: The resection margins and their prognostic significance are still subject of conflicting opinions. This paper is aimed to update our previous study with a more adequate follow-up, and to evaluate a stratification into risk categories and effectiveness of adjuvant treatment. METHODS: A prospective study, carried out between 2015 and 2018...
Background: Currently, human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity represents a strong prognostic factor for both reduced risk of relapse and improved survival in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). However, a subset of HPV-positive OPSCC patients still experience poor outcomes. Furthermore, HPV-negative OPSCC patients, who have...
Background and purpose
Currently, human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity represents a strong prognostic factor for both reduced risk of relapse and improved survival in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). However, a subset of HPV-positive OPSCC patients still experience poor outcomes. Furthermore, HPV-negative OPSCC patients...
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway has been shown to play a crucial role in several inflammatory conditions and host immune-inflammation status is related to tumor prognosis. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic significance of a four-gene inflammatory signature in recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma...
Lymphomas in people living with HIV (PLWH) are associated with Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi-sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). They include primary effusion lymphoma, large B-cell lymphoma arising in multicentric Castleman disease, plasmablastic lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). Inclusi...
Purpose of review:
To summarize the recent evidence on the pathology, current standard of care and recent advances in the treatment of HIV-related lymphomas.
Recent findings:
Lymphomas remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality in people living with HIV, even in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). However, treatment outcom...
Amongst the chief targets of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), namely the Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/PD-Ligands (Ls) axis, most research has focused on PD-L1, while to date PD-L2 is still under-investigated. However, emerging data support PD-L2 relevant expression in malignancies of the head and neck area, mostly in head and neck squ...
Objective:
The prognostic significance of the resection margins is still subject of conflicting opinions. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study on the margins in carcinoma of the oral cavity, oro-hypopharynx and larynx.
Methods:
A multicentre prospective study was carried out between 2015 and 2018 with the participation o...
Background
De novo tumors are a major cause of morbidity and mortality after long-term solid organ transplantation. Chronic immunosuppression strongly affects solid organ transplanted (SOT) patients’ immune system by promoting immune evasion strategies and reactivations of viruses with oncogenic potential, ultimately leading to cancer onset. In thi...
HIV infection increases cancer risk and is linked to cancers associated to infectious agents classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lymphomas represent one of the most frequent malignancies among individuals infected by HIV. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma remains a leading cancer after the introducti...
Since its introduction, the use of cetuximab in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has experienced an evolution. Currently, cetuximab associated with radiotherapy is limited to the treatment of patients affected by a locally advanced malignancy and unfit for cisplatin. However, reliable biomarkers of cetuximab efficacy i...
Introduction: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) can occur in different host conditions, i.e. in the general population and immunocompromised individuals, either during HIV infection or solid organ/hematopoietic transplantation and immunosuppressive drug treatment.
Areas covered: Areas covered include multidimensional characteristics of tumor cells and cellular...
Background:
The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is a parameter of nutritional and inflammation status related to toxicity in cancer treatment. Since data for head and neck cancer are scanty, this study aims to investigate the association between PNI and acute and late toxicity for this malignancy.
Methods:
A retrospective cohort of 179 head a...
Salvage surgery in recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma has a poor outcome, both in terms of survival and quality of life. Therefore, the identification of pre-operative prognostic factors to improve the selection of patients who could benefit the most from salvage surgery is clinically relevant. The present study is a single-center retr...
This letter to the editor focuses on a recent report of a retrospective case-control study of fluoropyrimidine-associated cardiotoxicity in cancer patients.
Aim
To evaluate the role of baseline neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as prognostic marker in squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (OPC) treated with definitive chemo‐radiotherapy (CRT) in the era of HPV status.
Patients And Methods
A retrospective analysis of 125 patients (pts) affected with locally advanced OPC was performed. Inclusion...
Introduction
The immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs) agents anti-T lymphocytes-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligands (PD-L1/PD-L2) have opened a new scenario in the treatment of cancer. These agents can induce immuno-related adverse events (irAEs), which may affect the endocrine system.
Purp...
Background
Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine neoplasia and represents approximately 1.5% to 2.1% of all cancers diagnosed annually worldwide. Iodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma (RR-DTC) and advanced/metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma are relatively uncommon yet prognostically significant thyroid cancers. Gene rearrange...
Background and Aims: Polymorphisms in the immune response genes can contribute to clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection but also mediate liver inflammation and cancer pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the association of polymorphisms in PD-1 (PDCD1), IFNL3 (IL28B), and TLR2 immune related genes in chronic HCV patients with diff...
Improvements in prognosis of head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have paralleled with an increase in health-care costs, so that an economic evaluation is of growing importance. Presently, most of the evidence is from insurance-based studies in the USA. Between 2007 and 2010, 879 HNSCC patients were identified through the population-based...
Introduction. Bright-field in situ hybridization (ISH) methods detect gene alterations that may improve diagnostic precision and personalized management of cancer patients.
Areas covered. This review focuses on some bright-field ISH techniques for detection of gene amplification or viral infection that have already been introduced in tumor patholog...
Abstract Background Inclusion of new biomarkers to improve a personalized treatment approach for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is urgently needed. Hypomethylation of the Long interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) repetitive elements, a widely accepted surrogate of overall genomic DNA methylation content, was found to be associa...
Objectives:
To evaluate the impact of time to treatment initiation (TTI) on overall survival in patients with head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
Materials and methods:
In the period 2003-2009, 1616 HNSCC patients were diagnosed in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Northeastern Italy, including 462 oral, 346 oropharyngeal, 212 hypopharyng...
Purpose:
Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCC) cause more than 300,000 deaths worldwide each year. Locoregional and distant recurrences represent worse prognostic events and accepted surrogate markers of patients' survival. No valid biomarker and salvage therapy exist to identify and treat patients at high-risk of recurrence. We aimed to...
Rationale
Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have been shown to be at increased risk for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection of the anogenital tract. Furthermore, in the last decades, the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has increased the longevity of these patients who now live long...
To explore the relationship between innate immunity and hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in determining the risk of cirrhosis (CIR), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome (MCS) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), we investigated the impact of the toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) and interleukin-28B (IL28B) genetic variants. TLR2 -174 del va...
Although promising, clinical responses to adoptive immunotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are still limited by the restricted number of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antigens that can be targeted and their poor immunogenicity. Our previous work indicated that the immunogenic features of the NPC-associated viral antigen BARF1 may be exploited f...
Simian Virus 40, experimentally assayed in vitro in different animal and human cells and in vivo in rodents, was classified as a small DNA tumor virus. In previous studies, many groups identified Simian Virus 40 sequences in healthy individuals and cancer patients using PCR techniques, whereas others failed to detect the viral sequences in human sp...
The paper by Rachidi et al. suggests that antiplatelet drugs may play a role in ameliorating the clinical outcome in a large series of patients with head and neck cancer managed with either surgery or radiation. Our data, as well as confirming the results observed by the authors, enhance their clinical relevance pointing out the effect of antiplate...
The advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has markedly extended the survival rates of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), leading to suppression even though not eradication of HIV. In HIV infected patients, cancer has become a growing problem, representing the first cause of death. A large number of worldwide studies have shown that...
This study aimed to evaluate plasma concentration of selected cancer-associated inflammatory and immune-modulated cytokines in HIV+ patients with advanced Kaposi sarcoma (KS), and to explore candidate biomarkers capable of predicting clinical outcome in response to chemotherapy (CT) plus combination antiretroviral therapy (cART).
Thirty-seven plasm...
The Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (SIMIT) of the Technical Health Committee, Ministry of Health (Sections L and M) of Italy have supported recommendations for the Italian guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents and the diagnostic-clinical management of HIV-1 infected persons. This publication summarizes the latest upda...
The variability in the association of host innate immune response to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection requires ruling out the possible role of host KIR and HLA genotypes in HCV-related disorders: therefore, we therefore explored the relationships between KIR/HLA genotypes and chronic HCV infection (CHC) as they relate to the risk of HCV-related he...
Abstract Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is a widely used procedure for AIDS-related lymphomas, and it represents an opportunity to evaluate strategies curing HIV-1 infection. The association of autograft HIV-DNA load with peripheral blood HIV-1 reservoir before ASCT and its contribution in predicting HIV-1 reservoir size and stability...
Objectives
The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of IMRT with concomitant boost simultaneous integrated boost-intensity modulated radiotherapy (SIB-IMRT) compared with conventional radiation in the setting of sequential chemoradiotherapy (induction chemoradiotherapy(ICRT)) for patients with advanced oropharynx cancer (OPC).
Materials an...
Background:
The association between undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is well established. Nevertheless, available evidence suggests that other cofactors are required for the development of undifferentiated NPC. Several investigations reported simian virus 40 (SV40) footprints in human tumors of different...
Background:
The impact of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) on the risk of non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) and the role of biological and clinical factors in their pathogenesis are debated issues. The purpose of this review is to examine the epidemiology, etiology, and not-yet-defined pathogenic characteristics of NADCs and discuss...
Background / Purpose:
Immunotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) driven malignance, did not show the same efficacy demonstrated for post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD). This is mainly due to scarce immunogenicity and number of antigens expressed in latency II of EBV, the same type of latency carr...
Multicentric Castleman Disease (MCD) is a lymphoproliferative disorder presenting with heterogeneous pathological and clinical features. It comprises disease entities with a complex aetiology and overlapping pathogenesis. MCD can be found in association with HIV infection, plasma-cell dyscrasias, Kaposi sarcoma (KS), B-cell lymphomas including prim...
Cancer survivorship represents a new challenge in the third Millennium. In Europe the number of cancer survivors was estimated to be 17,8 million in 2008 and this number is growing. Recent improvements in cancer survival are largely due to earlier diagnosis and advancements in treatment. Despite having favorable effects on cancer survival, radiatio...
Despite the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy or combination antiretroviral therapy (HAART and cART, respectively) patients infected with HIV might develop certain types of cancer more frequently than uninfected people. Lymphomas represent the most frequent malignancy among patients with HIV. Other cancer types that have increase...
Effort-induced myocardial ischemia (EMI) has been seldom described. Aims of our study were: A) evaluate the prevalence of EMI during long-lasting 5FU infusion; B) identify possible risk factors of EMI during 5FU infusion.
For the purpose (A) we prospectively evaluated a group of patients undergoing in-hospital continuous infusion (CI) of 5FU. Patie...
National cohort and intercohort studies have been set to describe the differences of life expectancy (LE) of HIV-infected individuals.
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of immune recovery (IR) on LE of patients with HIV undergoing combination antiretroviral therapy.
In this retrospective observational study, outcome measure was LE of p...
AIDS incidence and mortality have decreased since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) into clinical practice. HIV-related malignancies, namely Kaposi's sarcoma and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, have decreased, whereas non-AIDS defining tumors have been increasing. Our aim was to study the impact of HAART on natural history of...
Objectives. Retrospective review of our experience using intensity-modulated radiotherapy with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB-IMRT) combined with chemotherapy as the primary treatment of locoregionally advanced larynx and hypopharynx cancers. Materials and Methods. Between September 2008 and June 2012, 60 patients (26 with larynx and 34 hypopha...
Purpose:
The role of dietary habits in the etiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has been extensively investigated in high-incidence areas, but evidence is scanty in low-incidence populations. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between NPC risk and a wide range of food groups in the Italian population.
Methods:
We conducted a...
The BJC is owned by Cancer Research UK, a charity dedicated to understanding the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer and to making sure that the best new treatments reach patients in the clinic as quickly as possible. The journal reflects these aims. It was founded more than fifty years ago and, from the start, its far-sighted mission was to...
Despite the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) remains one of the main causes of death in HIV-infected patients, with a wide variation on the outcome.
We investigated immunological status and EBV, HHV8, HIV viral load in a group of HIV-infected patients at diagnosis of NHL to evaluate their prognostic significan...
Head-Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HN-SCC) is a clinically challenging disease associated with a high mortality rate. The chemo-radiotherapy treatments that aim to preserve the organ represent the current gold standard therapy for advanced laryngeal disease, reserving surgery only for non-responsive or relapsed cases. Despite these aggressive appro...
4918
Background
Multicentric Castleman Disease (MCD) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder, strictly related to Kaposi Sarcoma (KS) as both associated to HHV-8 infection. Like other HIV-related diseases, such as Non Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma, MCD prevalence is known to be increased in HIV-pos subjects. How...
Objective:
Although there is no standard treatment after docetaxel failure in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), second-line chemotherapy is increasingly required. Its mechanism of action and toxicity profile make pemetrexed suitable for testing in this setting.
Methods and materials:
Patients with docetaxel-resistant CRP...
To evaluate the outcome of Undifferentiated Nasopharyngeal Carcinomas (UCNT) treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy with Simultaneous Integrated Boost (SIB), following induction chemotherapy. Between January 2006 and June 2009, 52 patients with stage II B-IVA/B UCNT were treated either with linac-IMRT or Tomotherapy. All patients were s...
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is rare in western Countries. Tobacco smoking is a well-recognised risk factor, whereas the role of alcohol drinking is still in debate. We conducted a hospital-based case-control study in Italy on 150, histologically-confirmed, NPC cases of Caucasian ethnicity, aged 18-76years, including 118 undifferentiated NPCs and...
The incidence of Hodgkin’s disease is modestly increased in HIV-infected individuals. Most large series have been reported
from Western European countries,such as Italy,Spain, and France. HIV-associated Hodgkin’s disease is characterized by a higher
frequency of unfavorable histologic subtypes (such as mixed cellularity) and advanced stage (with ex...
4827
Background
The introduction of HAART has significantly improved the outcome of pts with HD-HIV. However there are no data on the long term follow-up of HD-HIV pts treated with conventional chemotherapy (CT) regimens. In 2002, we reported the results of a prospective phase II study with the intensive 12-week CT with adjuvant radiotherapy (Stan...
5072
Background
The combination of Rituximab plus chemotherapy (CT) is more effective than CT alone in the treatment of high grade NHL. Objective: To report the long-term follow-up of CDE plus Rituximab in HIV-NHL.
Methods
In June 1998, we started a phase II study using infusional CDE (Cyclophosphamide 187.5 mg/m2/day, Doxorubicin 12.5 mg/m2/day...
High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) are feasible and effective salvage treatments for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related relapse or refractory lymphoma. Among the main concerns with ASCT in HIV-infected persons is the additional immune depletion caused by treatment, which could amplify the preexistin...
Patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) develop central nervous system (CNS) progression or recurrence during the course of their disease. Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-NHL often develop CNS progression despite the use of prophylaxis. Liposomal cytarabine (DepoCyte) has shown activity in lymphomatous meningitis, but t...
In the HAART era Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) remains the second most frequent tumor in HIV-infected patients worldwide, and it has become the most common cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. In western countries the risk for KS in men having sex with men (MSM) is 5 to 10 times higher compared to other groups of individuals practicing other HIV-risk behaviors. P...
Primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (PCNSL) is a non-Hodgkin lymphoma that arises within and is confined to the CNS. Recent data have suggested an increasing incidence in immunocompetent individuals, with a peak of incidence between 60 and 70 years of age. Patients with PCNSL present mostly with symptoms of increased intracranial pressure...
The role of genetic factors involved in the development of undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (UNPC) in nonendemic areas has been poorly investigated. High-resolution human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genotyping carried out in 82 Italian UNPC patients and 286 bone marrow donors born in the same province showed that A*0201, B*1801, and B*...
in an Italian cooperative study on AIDS and cancer a diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease was established in 36 HIV-positive patients. the series was characterized by a high proportion of drug abusers, a high proportion of mixed cellularity and lymphocytic depletion subtypes and short survival. It is still unclear if HIV infection promotes the developmen...
Fifty cases of Hodgkin's disease in intravenous drug users (IVDU) have been collected by the Italian Cooperative Group on AIDS-Related Tumors (G.I.C.A.T.). Ninety-two per cent of the patients were males; the median age was 26 years. Persistent generalized lymphadenopathy (PGL) at onset was present in 54% of patients, AIDS in 9%, ARC in 9% while 28%...
The role of low doses of cisplatin and concomitant postoperative radiotherapy in high risk head and neck squamous cell carcinoma has not yet been defined.
Patients treated with definitive surgery, who had histological evidence of involvement of more than 2 lymph nodes, extracapsular extension of disease, perineural and/or intravascular invasion, in...
After the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), intensive treatment, including high-dose therapy (HDT) and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT), has become feasible in HIV-positive patients with Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin (NHL) lymphoma. Herein, we report the long-term results, on an intention-to-treat basis,...
This is a mono-institutional analysis of the clinical features, immunological and virological findings, and prognostic factors of patients with HIV infection and HHV-8-lymphoproliferative disorders. Patients with Multicentric Castleman Disease and HHV-8-related lymphoma diagnosed and treated from April 1987 to June 2004 were included in the study....
Background: The combination of Rituximab plus chemotherapy (CT) is more effective than CT alone in the treatment of high grade NHL.
Objective: To report the long-term follow-up of CDE plus Rituximab in HIV-NHL.
Methods: In June 1998, we started a phase II study using infusional CDE (Cyclophosphamide 187.5 mg/m2/day, Doxorubicin 12.5 mg/m2/day and E...
The present prospective study seeks to evaluate overall and disease free survival, response and organ preservation rate, and toxicity of an intensive chemotherapy regimen (CT) followed by unconventional radiotherapy (RT) in patients with locally advanced operable head and neck cancer. Between January 1998 and December 2006 (June 2005), 115 patients...
Immunotherapy approaches targeting Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded antigens induce objective clinical responses only in a fraction of patients with undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (UNPC). In the present study, we have characterized the immunogenicity of the EBV-encoded BARF1 oncogene with the aim to assess whether this protein could cons...
The coadministration of protease inhibitors with anticancer drugs in the management of human immunodeficiency virus-related malignancies can cause potential drug-drug interactions. The effect of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/RTV) on the pharmacokinetics of irinotecan (CPT11) has been investigated in seven patients with Kaposi's sarcoma. Coadministration...
A simple and rapid method has been developed and validated for the quantitation of vincristine in human plasma by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization using on-line solid-phase extraction. The method uses vinblastine as internal standard and the sample preparation is limited just to...
Background
Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) is a histological subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), particularly of adenocarcinoma. Given its multifocality and the poor activity of chemotherapy, there is no established treatment for BAC, although promising results have been achieved with inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor...
