Search results for "ops"

Liquid Biopsy in Breast Cancer

2017

Breast cancer (BC) to date remains the most common cancer in women. Nowadays, BC is often diagnosed at local disease stage, and, after surgery, based on individual’s risk of relapse, the patients undergo adjuvant systemic treatment to decrease the risk of recurrence. Current BC classification and assessment remain strongly based on clinicopathological criteria, including patient age, tumor size, lymph node invasion, histological type, and grade. According to standard practice, the choice of treatment strategy includes assays for estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR) receptor expression levels, overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2), or amplification status of the …

Exosomes isolation and characterization in serum is feasible in non-small cell lung cancer patients: critical analysis of evidence and potential role…

2016

// Simona Taverna 1,2,* , Marco Giallombardo 1,3,* , Ignacio Gil-Bazo 4 , Anna Paola Carreca 3 , Marta Castiglia 3 , Jorge Chacartegui 3 , Antonio Araujo 5 , Riccardo Alessandro 1,2 , Patrick Pauwels 6 , Marc Peeters 7 and Christian Rolfo 3 1 Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnology, Section of Biology and Genetics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy 2 Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology (IBIM), National Research Council, Palermo, Italy 3 Phase I-Early Clinical Trials Unit, Oncology Department, Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) and Center for Oncological Research (CORE) Antwerp University, Wilrijkstraat, Edegem, Antwerp, Belgium 4 Department of Oncology, Clinica…

Liquid biopsy: another tool towards tailored therapy in colorectal cancer.

2017

The Value of Liquid Biopsies for Guiding Therapy Decisions in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

2019

Targeted therapies have allowed for an individualized treatment approach in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The initial therapeutic decisions and success of targeted therapy depend on genetic identification of personal tumor profiles. Tissue biopsy is the gold standard for molecular analysis, but non-invasive or minimally invasive liquid biopsy methods are also now used in clinical practice, allowing for later monitoring and optimization of the cancer treatment. The inclusion of liquid biopsy in the management of NSCLC provides strong evidence on early treatment response, which becomes a basis for determining disease progression and the need for changes in treatment. Liquid biopsies can…

Liquid Biopsy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

2017

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. To date, the gold standard for the molecular analysis of a patient affected by NSCLC is the tissue biopsy. The discovery of activating mutations and rearrangements in specific genes has revolutionized the therapeutic approaches of lung cancer over the last years. For this reason, a strict “molecular follow-up” is mandatory to evaluate patient’s disease evolution. Indeed, liquid biopsy has raised as the “new ambrosia of researchers” as it could help clinicians to identify both prognostic and predictive biomarkers in a more accessible way. Liquid biopsy analysis can be used in different moments starting from diagnosis to relapse, ea…

Non-invasive Biomarkers of Acute Rejection in Kidney Transplantation: Novel Targets and Strategies

2019

Abstract: Kidney transplantation is considered the favored treatment for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, since successful transplantation is associated with longer survival and improved quality of life compared to dialysis. Alloreactive immune responses against the donor kidney may lead to acute rejection of the transplant. The current diagnosis of renal allograft rejection mainly relies on clinical monitoring, including serum creatinine, proteinuria, and confirmation by histopathologic assessment in the kidney transplant biopsy. These parameters have their limitations. Identification and validation of biomarkers, which correlate with or predict the presence of acute reject…

A two-gene epigenetic signature for the prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer patients

2019

Background Pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) varies between 30 and 40% approximately. To provide further insight into the prediction of pCR, we evaluated the role of an epigenetic methylation-based signature. Methods Epigenetic assessment of DNA extracted from biopsy archived samples previous to NAC from TNBC patients was performed. Patients included were categorized according to previous response to NAC in responder (pCR or residual cancer burden, RCB = 0) or non-responder (non-pCR or RCB > 0) patients. A methyloma study was performed in a discovery cohort by the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip (450K arra…

Optogenetics: a new method for the causal analysis of neuronal networks in vivo

2012

Abstract The causal analysis of neuronal network function requires selective manipulations of ge­netically defined neuronal subpopulations in the intact living brain. Here, we highlight the method of optogenetics, which meets those needs. We cover methodological aspects, limitations, and practical applications in the field of neurosciences. The fundamentals of optogenetics are light-sensitive transmembrane channels and light-driven ion pumps, which can be genetically encoded, without requir­ing the application of exogenous cofactors. These opsins are expressed in neurons by means of viral gene transfer and cell-specific promoters. Light for stimulation can be non- or minimally invasively de…

Exosomal microRNAs in liquid biopsies: future biomarkers for prostate cancer

2017

Abstract: Prostate cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer in males in the world. Plasma quantification of prostate-specific antigen substantially improved the early detection of prostate cancer, but still lacks the required specificity. Clinical management of prostate cancer needs advances in the development of new non-invasive biomarkers, ameliorating current diagnosis and prognosis and guiding therapeutic decisions. microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. These miRNAs are expressed in the cells and are also present in cell-derived extracellular vesicles such as exosomes. Exosomes have been shown to act as…

Alterations in White Matter Network and Microstructural Integrity Differentiate Parkinson’s Disease Patients and Healthy Subjects

2019

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease, neuropathologically characterized by progressive loss of neurons in distinct brain areas. We hypothesize that quantifiable network alterations are caused by neurodegeneration. The primary motivation of this study was to assess the specific network alterations in PD patients that are distinct but appear in conjunction with physiological aging. 178 subjects (130 females) stratified into PD patients, young, middle-aged and elderly healthy controls (age- and sex-matched with PD patients), were analyzed using 3D-T1 magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MPRAGE) and diffusion weighted images acquired in 3T MRI scanner. Diffusion modeli…