Impact of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic dissemination on the management of neuroendocrine neoplasia in Italy: a report from the Italian Association for Neuroendocrine Tumors (Itanet)

Introduction The organization of the healthcare system has significantly changed after the recent COVID-19 outbreak, with a negative impact on the management of oncological patients. The present survey reports data collected by the Italian Association for Neuroendocrine Tumors on the management of patients with neuroendocrine neoplasia (NEN) during the pandemic dissemination. Methods A survey with 57 questions was sent to NEN-dedicated Italian centers regarding the management of patients in the period March 9, 2020, to May 9, 2020 Results The main modification in the centers’ activity consisted of decreases in newly diagnosed NEN patients (− 76.8%), decreases in performed surgical procedure…

Choline PET/CT Features to Predict Survival Outcome in High Risk Prostate Cancer Restaging: A Preliminary Machine-Learning Radiomics Study

Background Radiomic features are increasingly utilized to evaluate tumor heterogeneity in PET imaging but to date its role has not been investigated for Cho-PET in prostate cancer. The potential application of radiomics features analysis using a machine-learning radiomics algorithm was evaluated to select 18F-Cho PET/CT imaging features to predict disease progression in PCa. Methods We retrospectively analyzed high-risk PCa patients who underwent restaging 18F-Cho PET/CT from November 2013 to May 2018. 18F-Cho PET/CT studies and related structures containing volumetric segmentations were imported in the "CGITA" toolbox to extract imaging features from each lesion. A Machine-learning model h…

Radiomics Analysis of Brain [18F]FDG PET/CT to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease in Patients with Amyloid PET Positivity: A Preliminary Report on the Application of SPM Cortical Segmentation, Pyradiomics and Machine-Learning Analysis

Background: Early in-vivo diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is crucial for accurate management of patients, in particular, to select subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that may evolve into AD, and to define other types of MCI non-AD patients. The application of artificial intelligence to functional brain [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography(CT) aiming to increase diagnostic accuracy in the diagnosis of AD is still undetermined. In this field, we propose a radiomics analysis on advanced imaging segmentation method Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM)-based completed with a Machine-Learning (ML) application to predict the diagnosi…

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

To date, the virtual multidisciplinary tumor boards (vMTBs) are increasingly used to achieve high-quality treatment recommendations across health-care regions, which expands and develops the local MTB team to a regional or national expert network. This review describes the process of lung cancer-specific MTBs and the transition process from face-to-face tumor boards to virtual ones. The review also focuses on the project organization's description, advantages, and disadvantages. Semi-structured interviews identified five major themes for MTBs: current practice, attitudes, enablers, barriers, and benefits for the MTB. MTB teams exhibited positive responses to modeled data feedback. Virtualiz…

Radiomics and artificial intelligence in prostate cancer: new tools for molecular hybrid imaging and theragnostics

AbstractIn prostate cancer (PCa), the use of new radiopharmaceuticals has improved the accuracy of diagnosis and staging, refined surveillance strategies, and introduced specific and personalized radioreceptor therapies. Nuclear medicine, therefore, holds great promise for improving the quality of life of PCa patients, through managing and processing a vast amount of molecular imaging data and beyond, using a multi-omics approach and improving patients’ risk-stratification for tailored medicine. Artificial intelligence (AI) and radiomics may allow clinicians to improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of using these “big data” in both the diagnostic and theragnostic field: from technical…

The role of PET radiomic features in prostate cancer: a systematic review

Aim: This systematic review aims to present the available evidence on the use of radiomic features (RFs) extracted from PET imaging in patients with prostate cancer (PCa). Materials and methods: A comprehensive literature search of studies on the utility of PET-derived RFs in patients with PCa was performed in the PubMed/MEDLINE database through February 24th, 2021 using the following search string: [“positron-emission tomography” (MeSh terms) OR “positron emission tomography computed tomography” (MeSh terms) OR “positron-emission tomography” (all fields) OR “positron emission tomography computed tomography” (all fields) OR “PET” (all fields)] AND [“radiomics” (all fields) OR “radiomic” (al…

Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in the assessment of cerebral circulation arrest: improving sensitivity by trancervical and transorbital carotid insonation and serial examinations

INTRODUCTION: Transcranial Doppler (TCD) can detect the cerebral circulation arrest (CCA) in brain death. TCD is highly specific, but less sensitive because of false-negatives accounting for up to 10%. The aim of the study was to explore the diagnostic accuracy of TCD and to determine whether it can be augmented by strategies such as the insonation of the extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) and sequential examinations. METHODS: Data of 184 patients, who met clinical criteria of brain death, observed from 1998 through 2006, were retrospectively reviewed. The study of cerebral arteries was performed through the transtemporal approach, suboccipital insonation of the vertebro-basilar sys…

Ruolo dell’imaging funzionale nel management delle emorragie cerebrali atipiche: proposta di un protocollo diagnostico derivato dalla sperimentazione clinica

Transthyretin-Related Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP): A Single-Center Experience in Sicily, an Italian Endemic Area

Abstract Background: Familial amyloid polyneuropathy related to transthyretin gene (TTR-FAP) is a life-threatening disease transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait. Val30Met mutation accounts for the majority of the patients with large endemic foci especially in Portugal, Sweden and Japan. However, more than one hundred other mutations have been described worldwide. A great phenotypic variability among patients with late- and early-onset has been reported. Objective: To present a detailed report of TTR-FAP patients diagnosed in our tertiary neuromuscular center, in a 20-year period. Methods: Clinical informations were gathered through the database of our center. Results: The study involve…

Artificial Intelligence Applications on Restaging [18F]FDG PET/CT in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Preliminary Report of Morpho-Functional Radiomics Classification for Prediction of Disease Outcome

Featured Application Based on results defined in this study, new investigations might propose morpho-functional-based radiomics algorithms for risk stratification with possible impact on treatment management in colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the application of [F-18]FDG PET/CT images-based textural features analysis to propose radiomics models able to early predict disease progression (PD) and survival outcome in metastatic colorectal cancer (MCC) patients after first adjuvant therapy. For this purpose, 52 MCC patients who underwent [F-18]FDGPET/CT during the disease restaging process after the first adjuvant therapy were analyzed. Follow-up data were recorded f…

Treatment of hyperthyroidism with radioiodine targeted activity: A comparison between two dosimetric methods.

Radioiodine therapy is an effective and safe treatment of hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease, toxic adenoma, toxic multinodular goiter. We compared the outcomes of a traditional calculation method based on an analytical fit of the uptake curve and subsequent dose calculation with the MIRD approach, and an alternative computation approach based on a formulation implemented in a public-access website, searching for the best timing of radioiodine uptake measurements in pre-therapeutic dosimetry. We report about sixty-nine hyperthyroid patients that were treated after performing a pre-therapeutic dosimetry calculated by fitting a six-point uptake curve (3-168h). In order to evaluate the res…

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.