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

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

1281P The prognostic impact of tissue tumour mutational burden (TMB) in the first-line treatment of advanced non-oncogene addicted non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

HCV/HBV coinfection: The dark side of DAAs treatment?

Acqua Fitusa cave: An example of inactive water-table sulphuric acid cave in Central Sicily

Description of the sulphuric acid cave in Sicily (see pdf attached)

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…

Cancer of Exocrine Pancreas

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma represents today a real challenge for oncologists all around the world: it is the 11th most common cancer worldwide, and the 7th deadliest, with a steadily increasing number of new cases every year. Many risk factors, both environmental and genetic, have been identified, the most important of which are excessive body weight, diabetes, and smoking; also, new diagnostic techniques, such as spiral TC, MRCP, and EUS, have improved the ability to diagnose this disease at an early stage. Nevertheless, pancreatic cancer is a silent disease, with few or no symptoms and signs until late stages: the vast majority of patients are inoperable at the time of diagnosis, with eith…

Morphology and evolution of sulphuric acid caves in South Italy

Sulphuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) related to the upwelling of acid water enriched in H2S and CO2 represents an unusual way of cave development. Since meteoric infiltration waters are not necessarily involved in speleogenesis, caves can form without the typical associated karst expressions (i.e. dolines) at the surface. The main mechanism of sulphuric acid dissolution is the oxidation of H2S (Jones et al., 2015) which can be amplified by bacterial mediation (Engel et al., 2004). In these conditions, carbonate dissolution associated with gypsum replacement, is generally believed to be faster than the normal epigenic one (De Waele et al., 2016). In Italy several SAS caves have been identified…

P48.10 Chemo-Immunotherapy in the Frontline of Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Indirect Comparisons

Impact of deleterious variants in other genes beyond BRCA1/2 detected in breast/ovarian and pancreatic cancer patients by NGS-based multi-gene panel testing: looking over the hedge

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…

Direct antiviral agents in hepatitis C virus related liver disease: Don’t count the chickens before they’re hatched

Since molecules with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) became available, the landscape of the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has completely changed. The new drugs are extremely effective in eradicating infection, and treatment is very well tolerated with a duration of 8-12 wk. This review aims to report the outstanding clinical benefits of DAA and to highlight their critical disadvantages, identifying some clinically relevant hot topics. First, do the rates of virological response remain as high when patients with more advanced cirrhosis are considered? Large studies have shown slightly lower but still satisfactory rates of response in these patients. Nevertheless, modified sche…

Tumor Board and Molecular Tumor Board

Specialized expertise and cooperation between different professional figures are increasingly needed for the management of cancer patients. Tumor boards (TB) can address this issue by gathering together different healthcare providers to periodically discuss challenging cases.

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

Exploring wider well-being in the EU-15 countries: an empirical application of the Stiglitz Report

We draw on the recommendations of the Stiglitz Report to select a set of economic and social variables that can be used to make cross-country comparisons of wider well-being. Using data for the EU-15 countries for 1999 and 2005, we show how three-way analysis can be used to extract synthetic information from a large data set to determine the main latent explanatory factors. In our case, we identify one dominant factor that we term the development profile, which is positively associated with the level of education outputs, technological progress and female labour market participation and negatively associated with the level of pollution. We rank the countries according to this factor and com…

Surface denudation rate of gypsum in Sicily

Studies on surface denudation rate of karst rocks were carried out for many years with different methods, although researches on limestones are much more numerous than those on gypsum. In Sicily the most large and complete Messinian evaporite succession of Gruppo Gessoso – Solfifero outcrops and since 1993-1994 surface denudation measurements were performed on different types of gypsum by the Micro-Erosion Meter (M.E.M.) method. MEM stations were placed on natural sites representing different lithological features of gypsum outcrops of the Island: 1) selenite gypsum with centimetre-sized crystals; 2) selenite gypsum with sub-centimetre crystals; 3) gypsum arenite; 4) microcrystalline gypsum…

Genetic models of poljes in Sicily

Geomorphological and geological studies have been carried out to contribute to the recognition of controlling causes and to the definition of genetic models for poljes of Sicily. A polje is a kilometric closed depression developed mainly on karst rocks, with a conspicuously flat and alluviated bottom affected by intermittent flooding. A polje is usually characterised by relatively steep slopes enclosing an almost perfectly horizontal floor, caused by lateral solution planation related to flooding events. The origin of a polje is due to dissolution of the land surface, although geological structure generally influences its genesis. These large depressions are often elongated according to the…

20P Is evaluation of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) mutational status on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) by liquid biopsy ready for prime-time? A systematic review and an individual patient meta-analysis

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

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…