Search results for "Editor"

Shortening adjuvant chemotherapy in stage III colon cancer: are we ready for a change?

2018

Oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy for 6 months is considered the standard of care after a curative resection in patients with stage III colon cancer. The addition of oxaliplatin provides a benefit on overall survival confirmed in three randomised phase 3 trials1–3 with an long-term absolute increase ranging from 2.7% to 6%. Since oxaliplatin was incorporated into the adjuvant setting more than a decade ago, the standard in adjuvant therapy has remained unchanged because of the lack of novel agents with relevant activity in this scenario. Unfortunately, this combination can have also acute and long-term side effects that can interfere with daily life activities in potentially cured pat…

Maintenance with single agent bevacizumab fails to improve disease-control in metastatic colorectal cancer

2018

The availability of biologicals, such as anti-EFGR and anti-VEGF antibodies in combination with chemotherapy (ChT), has improved prognosis of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, the administration of drug combinations for a prolonged time implies an increased rate of toxicities, which is why some strategies to de-escalate treatment intensity have been studied.

Nonmetastatic Medulloblastoma of Early Childhood: Results From the Prospective Clinical Trial HIT-2000 and An Extended Validation Cohort

2020

PURPOSE The HIT-2000-BIS4 trial aimed to avoid highly detrimental craniospinal irradiation (CSI) in children < 4 years of age with nonmetastatic medulloblastoma by systemic chemotherapy, intraventricular methotrexate, and risk-adapted local radiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 2001-2011, 87 patients received systemic chemotherapy and intraventricular methotrexate. Until 2006, CSI was reserved for nonresponse or progression. After 2006, local radiotherapy was introduced for nonresponders or patients with classic medulloblastoma (CMB) or large-cell/anaplastic medulloblastoma (LCA). DNA methylation profiles of infantile sonic hedgehog-activated medulloblastoma (SHH-INF) were subdivided i…

Second line systemic therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma: Reasons for the failure

2015

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the main cause of death in patients with cirrhosis, with an increasing incidence worldwide. Sorafenib is the choice therapy for advanced HCC. Over time several randomized phase III trials have been performed testing sunitinib, brivanib, linifanib and other molecules in head-to-head comparison with Sorafenib as first-line treatment for advanced-stage HCC, but none of these has so far been registered in this setting. Moreover, another feared vacuum arises from the absence of molecules registered as second-line therapy for patients who have failed Sorafenib, representing an urgent unmet medical need. To date all molecules tested as second-line therapies for ad…

How can we support COVID-19 survivors? Five lessons from long-term cancer survival.

2021

Elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone as salvage therapy for patients with multiple myeloma: Italian, multicenter, retrospective clinical exper…

2020

No abstract available

What is the prognostic importance of lymphovascular space invasion in the absence of lymph node metastasis for early-stage endometrial cancer?

2021

Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the prognostic role of lymph-vascular space invasion (LVSI), evaluated in a semi-quantitative fashion on prognosis of early stage, low risk endometrial cancer (EC). Methods: We enrolled patients who underwent surgery for endometrial cancer between 2003 and 2018 in two referral cancer center. All patients had endometrioid EC, G1–G2, with myometrial invasion <50%, and no lymph-node involvement. LVSI was analyzed in a semi-quantitative way, according to a 3-tiered scoring system in absent, focal and substantial. Results: Among 524 patients, any positive LVSI was found in 57 patients (10.9%) with focal LVSI (n=35, 6.7%) and substantial LVSI (n=2…

Multidisciplinary management of gastric and gastroesophageal cancers

2008

Carcinomas of the stomach and gastroesophageal junction are among the five top leading cancer types worldwide. In spite of radical surgical R0 resections being the basis of cure of gastric cancer, surgery alone provides long-term survival in only 30% of patients with advanced International Union Against Cancer (UICC) stages in Western countries because of the high risk of recurrence and metachronous metastases. However, recent large phase-III studies improved the diagnostic and therapeutic options in gastric cancers, indicating a more multidisciplinary management of the disease. Multimodal strategies combining different neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant protocols have clearly improved the gastric…

Transplantation in follicular lymphoma: not "yes or no" but "whom and when".

2013

After years of debate, the question as to what is the optimal use of transplantation strategies in indolent lymphoma remains controversial. In the July issue of Haematologica, a study was published by the EBMT Lymphoma Working Party that aims to define indications for hematopoietic stem cell

Definition and estimation of osteonecrosis of jaw (ONJ), and optimal duration of antiresorptive treatment in bone metastatic cancer patients: supplem…

2017

To the Editor, In their recent article, Stopeck et al. [1] concluded that denosumab confirms its known safety profile even after longterm exposure, or after switching to it from zoledronic acid, and that osteonecrosis of jaws (ONJ) rates increased with increasing exposure to antiresorptives, consistent with previous reports. This is based on the open label extension phase of two phase 3 studies in patients with breast and prostate cancer with bone metastases who were randomized to receive denosumab or zoledronic acid (ZA) [2, 3]. The patients were offered open-label denosumab for up to an additional 2 years after the results of the primary analysis, favorable for denosumab on several aspect…