0000000001098813
AUTHOR
Anita Busacca
Telemedicine Is an Effective Tool to Monitor Disease Activity in IBD Patients in the COVID-19 Era: A Single Centre Experience Based on Objective Data
Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has led IBD clinics to adopt a remote monitoring approach in order to guarantee an adequate follow-up of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and ensure the rules of social distancing. Aim: The aim of the study was to perform a survey on IBD patients who underwent remote monitoring in our tertiary referral center, to assess adherence, patients’ perceptions and satisfaction, and finally their opinions for future monitoring. Furthermore, we evaluated changes in disease activity and Quality of Life (QoL) using validated questionnaires. Methods: Consecutive patients with IBD scheduled for follow-up visits were switched to remote monitoring throu…
Recalibrating survival prediction among patients receiving trans‐arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma
Background & Aims The Pre-TACE-Predict model was devised to assess prognosis of patients treated with trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, before entering clinical practice, a model should demonstrate that it performs a useful role. Methods We performed an independent external validation of the Pre-TACE model in a cohort that differs in setting and time period from the one that generated the original model. Data from 826 patients treated with TACE for naïve HCC (2008-2018) were used to assess calibration and discrimination of the Pre-TACE-Predict model. Results The four risk-categories identified by the Pre-TACE-Predict model had gradient …
Monofocal hepatocellular carcinoma: How much does size matter?
Background & Aims: According to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system, monofocal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is classified as early (BCLC A) irrespective of its size, even though controversies still exist regarding staging and treatment of large tumours. We aimed at evaluating the appropriate staging and treatment for large (>5 cm) monofocal (HCC). Methods: From the Italian Liver Cancer database, we selected 924 patients with small early monofocal HCC (2-5 cm; SEM-HCC), 163 patients with larger tumours (>5 cm; LEM-HCC) and 1048 intermediate stage patients (BCLC B). Results: LEM-HCC patients had a worse overall survival (OS) than SEM-HCC (31.0 vs 49.0 months; P…
Material deprivation affects the management and clinical outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma in a high-resource environment
Abstract Aim This study investigated how material deprivation in Italy influences the stage of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at diagnosis and the chance of cure. Methods 4114 patients from the Italian Liver Cancer database consecutively diagnosed with HCC between January 2008 and December 2018 were analysed about severe material deprivation (SMD) rate tertiles of the region of birth and region of managing hospitals, according to the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The main outcomes were HCC diagnosis modalities (during or outside surveillance), treatment adoption and overall survival. Results In more deprived regions, HCC was more frequently diagnosed during surveillan…
Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma with a 3-months interval in “extremely high-risk” patients does not further improve survival
Abstract Background An enhanced surveillance schedule has been proposed for cirrhotics with viral etiology, who are considered at extremely high-risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Aims We compared the 3- and 6-months surveillance interval, evaluating cancer stage at diagnosis and patient survival. Methods Data of 777 HBV and HCV cirrhotic patients with HCC diagnosed under a 3-months (n = 109, 3MS group) or a 6-months (n = 668, 6MS group) surveillance were retrieved from the Italian Liver Cancer database. Survival in the 3MS group was considered as observed and adjusted for lead-time bias, and survival analysis was repeated after a propensity score matching. Results The 3-months surveil…