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

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…

WHATSAPP MESSENGER AS A REAL-TIME TOOL FOR A LONG-DISTANCE ACTIVITY OF A MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Challenges and advances for the treatment of renal cancer patients with brain metastases: From immunological background to upcoming clinical evidence on immune-checkpoint inhibitors

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…

Cognitive thought diary in supportive psychology for people undergoing radiotherapy: a feasibility study

BAC KGROUND: Radiation therapy (RT ) has become one of the most widely-used and efficient treatments for cancer; nevertheless, people who undergo radiotherapy suffer the physical and psychological consequences of this stressful treatment, in addition to the psychosocial distress related to cancer. However, a Radiotherapy Unit is often a place where several patients crowd in from various hospitals with restricted timetables and, for logistic reasons, it is not easy to provide regular psychological sessions for each one. It is important to find a setting that allows us the involvement of the largest number of patients referred to the unit. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility a…

Stereotactic body radiotherapy in oligoprogressive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer during abiraterone or enzalutamide

Introduction: This monocentric, single-arm, retrospective study investigated the role of stereotactic body radiotherapy in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer who experienced oligoprogression during androgen receptor targeted agents. Methods: We retrospectively enrolled metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer patients treated with androgen receptor targeted agents between December 2016 and January 2022. All patients experienced an oligoprogression (defined as the appearance and/or the progression of ⩽5 bone or nodal or soft tissue metastases) during treatment with androgen receptor targeted agents and received stereotactic body radiotherapy upon oligoprogre…

Whatsapp messenger as a tool for the multidisciplinary management in everyday clinical practice

Introduction & Objectives Communication between doctors is traditionally conducted by written clinical charts. Mobile health is becoming an integral part of modern healthcare system, improving accessibility and quality of medical care. Recent papers suggest that an increasing number of doctors are using in their practice mobile tools to communicate clinical informations (1,2). The aim of our study was to verify the adoption of WhatsApp Messenger in everyday clinical practice to obtain a real-time multidisciplinary collaboration among medical centers located in different areas of the city. Material & Methods In January 2016 a WhatsApp Messenger group was created among 25 specialists:…

Virtual Multidisciplinary Tumor Board: A Narrative Review Focused on Lung Cancer

Article full text The above summary slide represents the opinions of the authors. For a full list of declarations, including funding and author disclosure statements, please see the full text online (see “read the peer-reviewed publication” opposite). © The authors, CC-BY-NC 2021.