0000000000243508
AUTHOR
Vincenzo Catalano
Natural history of malignant bone disease in hepatocellular carcinoma: final results of a multicenter bone metastasis survey
BackgroundBone is an uncommon site of metastasis in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Therefore, there are few studies concerning the natural history of bone metastasis in patients with HCC.Patients and methodsData on clinicopathology, survival, skeletal-related events (SREs), and bone-directed therapies for 211 deceased HCC patients with evidence of bone metastasis were statistically analyzed.ResultsThe median age was 70 years; 172 patients were male (81.5%). The median overall survival was 19 months. The median time to the onset of bone metastasis was 13 months (22.2% at HCC diagnosis); 64.9% patients had multiple bone metastases. Spine was the most common site of bon…
Prognostic role of human equilibrative transporter 1 (hENT1) in patients with resected gastric cancer.
Nucleoside transporter proteins are specialized proteins that mediate the transport of nucleosides and nucleoside analog drugs across the plasma membrane. The human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) is a member of these proteins and mediates cellular entry of gemcitabine, cytarabine, and fludarabine. The hENT1 expression has been demonstrated to be related with prognosis and activity of gemcitabine-based therapy in breast, ampullary, lung, and pancreatic cancer. We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of hENT in tumor samples from 111 patients with resected gastric adenocarcinoma, correlating these data with clinical parameters and disease outcomes. None of the patie…
Natural history of bone metastasis in colorectal cancer: final results of a large Italian bone metastases study.
ABSTRACT Background Data are limited regarding bone metastases from colorectal cancer (CRC). The objective of this study was to survey the natural history of bone metastasis in CRC. Patients and methods This retrospective, multicenter, observational study of 264 patients with CRC involving bone examined cancer treatments, bone metastases characteristics, skeletal-related event (SRE) type and frequency, zoledronic acid therapy, and disease outcomes. Results Most patients with bone metastases had pathologic T3/4 disease at CRC diagnosis. The spine was the most common site involved (65%), followed by hip/pelvis (34%), long bones (26%), and other sites (17%). Median time from CRC diagnosis to b…
A Phase II Trial of Fixed-Dose Rate Gemcitabine plus Capecitabine in Metastatic/Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer Patients
<i>Background:</i> This phase II trial was conducted to determine the activity and safety of the combination of fixed-dose rate (FDR) gemcitabine and capecitabine in metastatic biliary tract cancer (BTC) patients. <i>Methods:</i> Patients with unresectable BTC who had pathologically confirmed adenocarcinoma, no prior chemotherapy, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ≤1 and measurable disease were enrolled. Treatment consisted of FDR gemcitabine at 800 mg/m<sup>2</sup> on days 1 and 8 every 21 days with capecitabine administered orally b.i.d. in equal doses (650 mg/m<sup>2</sup> b.i.d.) for 14 days (28 doses). <i>…
Human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) levels predict response to gemcitabine in patients with biliary tract cancer (BTC)
Background and aim: Translational data suggest that nucleoside transporters, in particular human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1), play an important role in predicting clinical outcome after gemcitabine chemotherapy for several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to retrospectively determine patients' outcome according to the expression of hENT1 in tumoral cells of patients receiving gemcitabine-based therapy. Materials and Methods: The immunohistochemistry analysis was performed on samples from thirty-one patients with unresectable biliary tract cancer (BTC) consecutively treated with first line gemcitabine-based regimens. Results: Positive hENT1 staining patients were…
Weekly oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid (OXALF) as first-line chemotherapy for elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer: results of a phase II trial.
Abstract Background Elderly patients have been often excluded from or underrepresented in the study populations of combination chemotherapy trials. The primary end point of this study was to determine the response rate and the toxicity of the weekly oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid (OXALF) regimen in elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer. The secondary objective was to measure the time to disease progression and the survival time. Methods Chemotherapy-naive patients with advanced gastric cancer aged 70 or older were considered eligible for study entry. Patients received weekly oxaliplatin 40 mg/m2, fluorouracil 500 mg/m2 and folinic acid 250 mg/m2. All drugs were given i…
Natural History of Malignant Bone Disease in Gastric Cancer: Final Results of a Multicenter Bone Metastasis Survey
BackgroundBone metastasis represents an increasing clinical problem in advanced gastric cancer (GC) as disease-related survival improves. In literature, few data on the natural history of bone disease in GC are available.Patients and methodsData on clinicopathology, skeletal outcomes, skeletal-related events (SREs), and bone-directed therapies for 208 deceased GC patients with evidence of bone metastasis were statistically analyzed.ResultsMedian time to bone metastasis was 8 months (CI 95%, 6.125-9.875 months) considering all included patients. Median number of SREs/patient was one. Less than half of the patients (31%) experienced at least one and only 4 and 2% experienced at least two and …
The role of macrophages polarization in predicting prognosis of radically resected gastric cancer patients
Tumour-associated Macrophages (TAM) present two different polarizations: classical (M1) characterized by immunostimulation activity and tumour suppression; alternative (M2) characterized by tumour promotion and immune suppression. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the correlation between the two forms of TAM with survival time in radically resected gastric cancer patients. A total of 52 chemo- and radio- naive patients were included. Two slides were prepared for each patient and double-stained for CD68/NOS2 (M1) or CD68/CD163 (M2) and five representative high-power fields per slide were evaluated for TAM count. The median value of the two macrophage populations density and the media…