The role of polymorphisms occurring in BRCA1/2 genes in determining ovarian cancer risk.

2021

e17551 Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the 10th tumor occurring in women, it accounts for 30% of all malignant tumor affecting female genital tract in Italy. There are several factors that contribute to OC development; in 15-25% of cases family history of breast and ovarian cancer represent the main risk factor. It is well known that pathogenic variants (PVs) occurring in BRCA1/2 genes strongly increase the risk of developing OC, ranging from 50% in BRCA1 PVs carriers to 30% in BRCA2 PVs carriers. Recently genetic polymorphism has been shown to increase cancer risk, consequently polymorphisms in BRCA1/2 genes could represent low penetrance susceptibility alleles and contribute to determ…

1543P Gemcitabine in classic Kaposi’s sarcoma: A pilot study

2021

502P Impact of different selection approaches for identifying Lynch syndrome-related colorectal cancer patients

2021

Prognostic Role of Plasma PD-1, PD-L1, pan-BTN3As and BTN3A1 in Patients Affected by Metastatic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: Can Immune Checkpoin…

2021

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) represent 1% of all primary gastrointestinal tumors. Immune surveillance is often overcome by cancer cells due to the activation of immunoregulatory molecules such as programmed death protein (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1, and butyrophilin sub-family 3A/CD277 receptors (BTN3A). Because several studies demonstrated that tumor PD-1 and PD-L1 expression may have a prominent prognostic function, this investigation aimed to discover if soluble forms of these molecules may be useful in predicting survival of metastatic GIST (mGIST) patients. Through specific ad hoc developed ELISA assays not yet available on the market, the circulating PD-1, PD-L1, BTN3A1, an…

Role of the HIPPO pathway as potential key player in the cross talk between oncology and cardiology.

2021

The HIPPO pathway (HP) is a highly conserved kinase cascade that affects organ size by regulating proliferation, cell survival and differentiation. Discovered in Drosophila melanogaster to early 2000, it immediately opened wide frontiers in the field of research. Over the last years the field of knowledge on HP is quickly expanding and it is thought will offer many answers on complex pathologies. Here, we summarized the results of several studies that have investigated HP signaling both in oncology than in cardiology field, with an overview on future perspectives in cardiology research.

Prognostic and Predictive Role of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) in Ovarian Cancer

2022

In the last decade, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been recognized as clinically relevant prognostic markers for improved survival, providing the immunological basis for the development of new therapeutic strategies and showing a significant prognostic and predictive role in several malignancies, including ovarian cancer (OC). In fact, many OCs show TILs whose typology and degree of infiltration have been shown to be strongly correlated with prognosis and survival. The OC histological subtype with the higher presence of TILs is the high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) followed by the endometrioid subtype, whereas mucinous and clear cell OCs seem to contain a lower percentage of TI…

MUTYH-associated tumor syndrome: The other face of MAP

2022

MUTYH gene is involved in the base excision repair (BER) mechanism and its pathogenic alterations are associated with colorectal polyposis and cancer. MUTYH-associated polyposis (MAP) is a condition which is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. MAP patients, beyond colorectal cancer (CRC), may develop other types of tumors, including duodenal, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, bladder and skin cancers. Carriers of biallelic MUTYH likely pathogenic/pathogenic variants exhibit a high lifetime risk of CRC, though cancer risk evidence becomes less clear when monoallelic carriers and extraintestinal tumors are considered. However, several studies recently reported an increased genetic suscepti…

POLE, POLD1, and NTHL1: the last but not the least hereditary cancer-predisposing genes

2021

POLE, POLD1, and NTHL1 are involved in DNA replication and have recently been recognized as hereditary cancer-predisposing genes, because their alterations are associated with colorectal cancer and other tumors. POLE/POLD1-associated syndrome shows an autosomal dominant inheritance, whereas NTHL1-associated syndrome follows an autosomal recessive pattern. Although the prevalence of germline monoallelic POLE/POLD1 and biallelic NTHL1 pathogenic variants is low, they determine different phenotypes with a broad tumor spectrum overlapping that of other hereditary conditions like Lynch Syndrome or Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. Endometrial and breast cancers, and probably ovarian and brain tumo…

Can the tumor-agnostic evaluation of MSI/MMR status be the common denominator for the immunotherapy treatment of patients with several solid tumors?

2022

Alterations in short-repetitive DNA sequences, known as microsatellite instability (MSI), can reflect deficiencies in Mismatch Repair (MMR) system which represents a major player in DNA integrity maintenance. The incidence of MSI-H/dMMR has been shown to be variable depending on the tumor type. Several studies confirmed that dMMR/MSI status, although less frequent than PD-L1 expression, may better predict response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with solid tumors. In October 2016, the FDA granted pembrolizumab as breakthrough therapy for the treatment of non-CRC, MSI-H/dMMR tumors, providing, for the first time, a tumor-agnostic indication. In the next future, the tissue-…

Challenges and advances for the treatment of renal cancer patients with brain metastases: From immunological background to upcoming clinical evidence…

2021

The introduction of checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treatment landscape, resulted in improvements in overall survival (OS) in metastatic patients. Brain metastases (BMs) are a specific metastatic site of interest representing a predictive factor of poor prognosis. Patients with BMs were usually excluded from prospective clinical trials in the past. Despite recent evidence suggest the efficacy and safety of ICIs, the BMs treatment remains a challenge; the immunotherapy responsiveness seems to be multifactorial and dependent on several factors, such as the genetic intratumor heterogeneity and the immunosuppressive role of the brain tumor microenvironment. This revie…

1535P Exploring the dynamic crosstalk between immune system and genetics in a cohort of 116 completely resected gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST…

2021

162P Prevalence and spectrum analysis of germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants of unclear significance in HBOC Syndrome: Decoding the mysterious signals …

2021

Not all KIT 557/558 codons mutations have the same prognostic influence on recurrence-free survival: breaking the exon 11 mutations in gastrointestin…

2021

Background: Although the gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) genotype is not currently included in risk-stratification systems, a growing body of evidence shows that the pathogenic variant (PV) type and codon location hold a strong prognostic influence on recurrence-free survival (RFS). This information has particular relevance in the adjuvant setting, where an accurate prognostication could help to better identify high-risk tumors and guide clinical decision-making. Materials and Methods: Between January 2005 and December 2020, 96 patients with completely resected GISTs harboring a KIT proto-oncogene receptor tyrosine kinase ( KIT) exon 11 PV were included in the study. We analyzed the t…

Impact of deleterious variants in other genes beyond BRCA1/2 detected in breast/ovarian and pancreatic cancer patients by NGS-based multi-gene panel …

2021

Background Hereditary breast cancer (BC), ovarian cancer (OC), and pancreatic cancer (PC) are the major BRCA-associated tumours. However, some BRCA1/2-wild-type (wt) patients with a strong personal and/or family history of cancer need a further genetic testing through a multi-gene panel containing other high- and moderate-risk susceptibility genes. Patients and methods Our study was aimed to assess if some BC, OC, or PC patients should be offered multi-gene panel testing, based on well-defined criteria concerning their personal and/or family history of cancer, such as earliness of cancer onset, occurrence of multiple tumours, or presence of at least two or more affected first-degree relativ…

Prognostic role of soluble PD-1 and BTN2A1 in overweight melanoma patients treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab: finding the missing links in the …

2023

Individual response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is currently unpredictable in patients with melanoma. Recent findings highlight a striking improvement in the clinical outcomes of overweight/obese patients treated with ICIs, which seems driven, at least in part, by programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)-mediated T-cell dysfunction. A putative role of butyrophilins (BTNs) is under investigation as a novel mechanism of cancer immune evasion and obesity-associated inflammation. This study investigates the role of baseline plasma levels of soluble PD-1 (sPD-1), soluble programmed cell death ligand 1 (sPD-L1), BTN2A1 (sBTN2A1), BTN3A1 (sBTN3A1), along with body mass index (BMI), as pr…

166P Hereditary breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers: Looking beyond the BRCA1/2 genes

2021

Detection of Germline Mutations in a Cohort of 139 Patients with Bilateral Breast Cancer by Multi-Gene Panel Testing: Impact of Pathogenic Variants i…

2020

Simple Summary Many bilateral breast cancer patients with increased hereditary susceptibility to breast cancer result negative for BRCA1 or BRCA2 pathogenic variants and, thus, need a further genetic testing through a broader gene panel. Some patients with negative test result for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants may harbor pathogenic variants in other breast cancer susceptibility genes, including ATM, CHEK2, PALB2, PTEN, TP53. Of course, the use of a multi-gene panel provides clinicians more information through a single test. Therefore, we focused on potential clinical impact of a NGS-based multi-gene panel testing in bilateral breast cancer patients, in order to evaluate the utility of perform…

A “Lymphocyte MicroRNA Signature” as Predictive Biomarker of Immunotherapy Response and Plasma PD-1/PD-L1 Expression Levels in Patients with Metastat…

2020

Introduction of checkpoint inhibitors resulted in durable responses and improvements in overall survival in advanced RCC patients, but the treatment efficacy is widely variable, and a considerable number of patients are resistant to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition. This variability of clinical response makes necessary the discovery of predictive biomarkers for patient selection. Previous findings showed that the epigenetic modifications, including an extensive microRNA-mediated regulation of tumor suppressor genes, are key features of RCC. Based on this biological background, we hypothesized that a miRNA expression profile directly identified in the peripheral lymphocytes of the patients before and a…

247P Population-based testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in a cohort of 1,346 patients from Southern Italy (Sicily): When historical ba…

2020

Baseline plasma levels of soluble PD-1, PD-L1, and BTN3A1 predict response to nivolumab treatment in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: a…

2020

Despite a proportion of renal cancer patients can experiment marked and durable responses to immune-checkpoint inhibitors, the treatment efficacy is widely variable and identifying the patient who will benefit from immunotherapy remains an issue. We performed a prospective study to investigate if soluble forms of the immune-checkpoints PD-1 (sPD-1), PD-L1 (sPD-L1), pan-BTN3As, BTN3A1, and BTN2A1, could be candidate to predict the response to immune-checkpoint blockade therapy. We evaluated the plasma levels in a learning cohort of metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma (mccRCC) patients treated with the anti-PD-1 agent nivolumab by ad hoc developed ELISA’s. Using specific cut-offs determined…

Exploring the Dynamic Crosstalk between the Immune System and Genetics in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

2022

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs) represent a paradigmatic model of oncogene addiction. Despite the well-known impact of the mutational status on clinical outcomes, we need to expand our knowledge to other factors that influence behavior heterogeneity in GIST patients. A growing body of studies has revealed that the tumor microenvironment (TME), mostly populated by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and lymphocytes (TILs), and stromal differentiation (SD) have a significant impact on prognosis and response to treatment. Interestingly, even though the current knowledge of the role of immune response in this setting is still limited, recent pre-clinical and clinical data have highlight…

738P Soluble PD-1, PD-L1, pan-BTN3As, BTN3A1 and BTN2A1 as predictive biomarkers of nivolumab response in patients with metastatic clear cell renal c…

2020

BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in triple-negative versus luminal-like breast cancers: genotype–phenotype correlation in a cohort of 531 patients

2020

Background: Several available data suggest the association between specific molecular subtypes and BRCA1/2 mutational status. Previous investigations showed the association between BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (PVs) in specific genomic regions and phenotypic variations of cancer relative risk, while the role of PV type and location in determining the breast cancer (BC) phenotypic features remains still unclear. The aim of this research was to describe the germline BRCA1/2 PVs in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) versus luminal-like BC and their potential leverage on BC phenotype. Patients & methods: We retrospectively collected and analyzed all clinical information of 531 patients wit…

167P Role of the multi-gene panel testing for detection of pathogenic variants in patients with hereditary bilateral breast cancer

2021

Prevalence and Spectrum of Germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 Variants of Uncertain Significance in Breast/Ovarian Cancer: Mysterious Signals From the Genome

2021

About 10–20% of breast/ovarian (BC/OC) cancer patients undergoing germline BRCA1/2 genetic testing have been shown to harbor Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUSs). Since little is known about the prevalence of germline BRCA1/2 VUS in Southern Italy, our study aimed at describing the spectrum of these variants detected in BC/OC patients in order to improve the identification of potentially high-risk BRCA variants helpful in patient clinical management. Eight hundred and seventy-four BC or OC patients, enrolled from October 2016 to December 2020 at the “Sicilian Regional Center for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Rare and Heredo-Familial Tumors” of University Hospital Policlini…

Body mass index and baseline platelet count as predictive factors in Merkel cell carcinoma patients treated with avelumab

2023

BackgroundMerkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer, associated with a worse prognosis. The Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) avelumab and pembrolizumab have been recently approved as first-line treatment in metastatic MCC (mMCC). The clinical observation of improved outcomes in obese patients following treatment with ICIs, known as the “obesity paradox”, has been studied across many types of tumors. Probably due to the rarity of this tumor, data on mMMC patients are lacking.Patients and methodsThis is an observational, hospital-based, study to investigate the role of Body Mass Index (BMI) as predictive biomarker of ICI response in mMCC patients treated with aveluma…

sj-pdf-1-tam-10.1177_1758835920975326 – Supplemental material for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in triple-negative versus luminal-like breast cancers: …

2020

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-tam-10.1177_1758835920975326 for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in triple-negative versus luminal-like breast cancers: genotype–phenotype correlation in a cohort of 531 patients by Lorena Incorvaia, Daniele Fanale, Marco Bono, Valentina Calò, Alessia Fiorino, Chiara Brando, Lidia Rita Corsini, Sofia Cutaia, Daniela Cancelliere, Alessia Pivetti, Clarissa Filorizzo, Maria La Mantia, Nadia Barraco, Stefania Cusenza, Giuseppe Badalamenti, Antonio Russo and Viviana Bazan in Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF LIQUID BIOPSY IN IMMUNOTHERAPY: ROLE OF EXOSOMES, MICRORNAS AND PLASMA EXPRESSION LEVELS OF IMMUNE CHECKPOINTS IN PATIENTS …

2023

sj-pdf-1-tam-10.1177_1758835920975326 – Supplemental material for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in triple-negative versus luminal-like breast cancers: …

2020

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-tam-10.1177_1758835920975326 for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in triple-negative versus luminal-like breast cancers: genotype–phenotype correlation in a cohort of 531 patients by Lorena Incorvaia, Daniele Fanale, Marco Bono, Valentina Calò, Alessia Fiorino, Chiara Brando, Lidia Rita Corsini, Sofia Cutaia, Daniela Cancelliere, Alessia Pivetti, Clarissa Filorizzo, Maria La Mantia, Nadia Barraco, Stefania Cusenza, Giuseppe Badalamenti, Antonio Russo and Viviana Bazan in Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology

sj-docx-1-tam-10.1177_17588359231151845 – Supplemental material for Prognostic role of soluble PD-1 and BTN2A1 in overweight melanoma patients treate…

2023

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-tam-10.1177_17588359231151845 for Prognostic role of soluble PD-1 and BTN2A1 in overweight melanoma patients treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab: finding the missing links in the symbiotic immune-metabolic interplay by Lorena Incorvaia, Gaetana Rinaldi, Giuseppe Badalamenti, Alessandra Cucinella, Chiara Brando, Giorgio Madonia, Alessia Fiorino, Angela Pipitone, Alessandro Perez, Federica Li Pomi, Antonio Galvano, Valerio Gristina, Nadia Barraco, Marco Bono, Tancredi Didier Bazan Russo, Francesca Toia, Adriana Cordova, Daniele Fanale, Antonio Russo and Viviana Bazan in Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology