Worldwide Prevalence and Demographic Predictors of Impacted Third Molars-Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.

Impacted teeth are a common phenomenon, in both young and adult populations, as extensively documented in the literature. This study aims to systematically assess the global prevalence of impacted third molars and to analyze their demographic predictors. The present review adheres to PRISMA guidelines and includes studies published until December 2023.

Development of a buccal in vitro permeation method - exploring aQbD implementation.

The buccal mucosa is arising within the pharmaceutical landscape as an attractive option for local and systemic drug delivery, mostly due to its high vascularization, inherent permeability and robustness. Still, one of the major challenges in bringing oromucosal preparations to market remains the accurate evaluation of permeability. During pre-clinical drug development, in vitro permeation assessment is essential, and methodologies, based on the selection of a proper membrane in a diffusion cell, have become appealing alternatives to the conventional cell-based models.

Oromucosal products - Market landscape and innovative technologies: A review.

Strategies that rely on oral mucosal administration have increased in the last decade and oromucosal products are paving the way to overcome specific challenges, namely improving drug bioavailability when compared with the conventional oral route, due to a reduction of the hepatic first-pass metabolism and pre-systemic degradation. Overall, the advantages of these products make oromucosal route of administration attractive for the development of value-added medicines, which can address more properly the unmet medical needs of specific patients. Generally, such products have an easy and convenient administration since they do not require water for ingestion, which may be particularly relevant for geriatric and pediatric groups, or non-cooperative patients.

Guided Bone Regeneration in the Edentulous Atrophic Maxilla Using Deproteinized Bovine Bone Mineral (DBBM) Combined with Platelet-Rich Fibrin (PRF)-A Prospective Study.

Background: Bone regeneration procedures represent a major challenge in oral surgery. This study aimed to evaluate a composite PRF/particulate xenograft in guided bone regeneration.

Methods: Edentulous patients with horizontal ridge deficiencies in the anterior maxilla and candidates to an immediate-loading full-arch rehabilitation were included.

Survival Rate of 1008 Short Dental Implants with 21 Months of Average Follow-Up: A Retrospective Study.

This retrospective study evaluated the survival rate of short, sandblasted acid-etched surfaced implants with 6 and 8 mm lengths with at least 120 days of follow-up. Data concerning patient, implant and surgery characteristics were retrieved from clinical records. Sandblasted and acid-etched (SLA)-surfaced tissue-level 6 mm (TL6) or 8 mm (TL8) implants or bone-level tapered 8 mm (BLT8) implants were used.

Malignant transformation rate of oral leukoplakia-systematic review.

Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of prevalence studies to determine the rate of malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia and assess the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, and geographic region) on the overall transformation rate.

Study Design: A search was conducted for publications until July 2019 in 4 electronic databases and peer-reviewed journals. A manual search was performed on the bibliographies of the collected articles, and the authors were contacted for additional information.

Orphan drugs: major development challenges at the clinical stage.

Biotechnology has provided powerful tools to assist in research and development (R&D) for rare diseases. However, orphan drug development presents several major challenges and obstacles, such as low disease prevalence, disease severity, small and heterogeneous patient populations, difficulties in patient recruitment, and limited knowledge of the natural history of disease, among others. Several strategies can be used to plan for and overcome these clinical and regulatory challenges, namely improved clinical trial design, improved patient recruitment, and closer collaboration with the regulatory authorities and with patient associations.

The prognostic performance of Adjuvant! Online and Nottingham Prognostic Index in young breast cancer patients.

Background: Limited data are available on the prognostic performance of Adjuvant! Online (AOL) and Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) in young breast cancer patients.

Methods: This multicentre hospital-based retrospective cohort study included young (⩽40 years) and older (55-60 years) breast cancer patients treated from January 2000 to December 2004 at four large Belgian and Italian institutions. Predicted 10-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using AOL and 10-year OS using NPI were calculated for every patient.

Information perception, wishes, and satisfaction in ambulatory cancer patients under active treatment: patient-reported outcomes with QLQ-INFO25.

Background: Information is vital to cancer patients. Physician-patient communication in oncology presents specific challenges. The aim of this study was to evaluate self-reported information of cancer patients in ambulatory care at a comprehensive cancer centre and examine its possible association with patients' demographic and clinical characteristics.

Cardiotoxicity of systemic agents used in breast cancer.

Several breast cancer therapies can lead to cardiovascular toxicity: drugs such anthracyclines can cause permanent damage, anti-HER2 agents may cause transitory and reversible cardiac dysfunction and others, such as those used in endocrine therapy, primarily disturb lipid metabolism. Considering the seriousness of these complications, trials are now being conducted to address cardiotoxicity associated with new drugs; however, to fully understand their toxicity profiles, longer follow-up is needed. In this review, we compile the information available about cardiac toxicity related to well-established systemic breast cancer treatments, as well as newer drugs, including antiangiogenics, mTOR inhibitors and novel anti-HER2 agents.

How Long is Enough - Optimal Timing of Anti-HER2/neu Therapy in the Adjuvant Setting in Early Breast Cancer.

Trastuzumab administered in combination with various chemotherapy regimens has led to outstanding improvements in both disease-free survival and overall survival. So far, thousands of patients have been treated in this way which has proven to be reasonably safe, with cardiac events being the predominant recognisable toxicity requiring surveillance. Notwithstanding the large cumulative experience of the oncology community in treating early HER2/neu-positive breast cancer with trastuzumab, some uncertainties remain, with key issues being the ideal time of chemotherapy administration and the optimal duration of trastuzumab therapy.

Trastuzumab for patients with HER2 positive breast cancer: delivery, duration and combination therapies.

With the exception of endocrine therapy, no other systemic treatment of patients with breast cancer has reached such a magnitude of beneficial effect as trastuzumab. This targeted agent (monoclonal antibody) is associated with a significant improvement in both disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in women with HER-2 positive breast cancer when given in combination with or in sequence to adjuvant chemotherapy. This has been confirmed in a recent Cochrane meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), including 6 adjuvant and 2 neoadjuvant studies (NSABP B-31, NCCTG N9831, BCIRG 006, HERA, FinHer, PACS-04, Buzdar and NOAH), with data collection until February 2010.

Sexuality and breast cancer: prime time for young patients.

Sexuality and sexual functioning is a cardinal domain of health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients, namely in the younger population. Young women below 40 years of age go through a time in their lives where sexual self-identity has recently matured, their professional obligations are demanding and they bear interpersonal and childbearing expectations, all of which can suffer a devastating turnaround with cancer diagnosis and its physical and psychological aftermath. Although these women's sexuality and directed interventions have remained largely unaddressed so far, concepts are evolving and treatment options are becoming diversified, chiefly on the field of non-hormonal pharmacological therapy of sexual dysfunction.

Development, characterization and in vitro evaluation of single or co-loaded imatinib mesylate liposomal formulations.

Mitoxantrone-based combinations are a standard palliative treatment in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) but with no survival benefit. Imatinib has shown preclinical activity against HRPC although minimal clinical therapeutic efficacy. Our previous in vitro studies demonstrated that simultaneous combination of imatinib with mitoxantrone yielded additive growth inhibition effects against PC-3 cell line.

Improving quality of life after breast cancer: dealing with symptoms.

Background: Advances in breast cancer therapies have given rise to a growing number of patient survivors. Nevertheless, these women deal with long-term sequelae that impair their quality of life and that are lacking satisfactory assessment and expeditious management. Importantly, a new era is raising in the oncology field, namely, survivorship.

Liposomal imatinib-mitoxantrone combination: formulation development and therapeutic evaluation in an animal model of prostate cancer.

Background: Mitoxantrone plus prednisone is a palliative treatment for hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) but without survival benefit. Imatinib has shown activity against HRPC but only in the preclinical setting. Our previous in vitro cytotoxicity screening study established that their free combination act additively to inhibit proliferation of PC-3 cells.

Schedule treatment design and quantitative in vitro evaluation of chemotherapeutic combinations for metastatic prostate cancer therapy.

Purpose: Preclinical evaluation is essential for a rational design of combination chemotherapy as some agents, with known mechanisms of action and non-overlapping toxicities may increase the therapeutic index of anticancer drugs, whose clinical success is hindered by side effects and drug resistance. The present study investigated new drug combinations with potential outcome for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer. This final clinical stage exhibits predominantly hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) cells but also a minority of hormone responsive cells.

Ciprofloxacin sensitizes hormone-refractory prostate cancer cell lines to doxorubicin and docetaxel treatment on a schedule-dependent manner.

Purpose: Combination therapy has generated a significant interest in the clinical setting since certain agents, with known mechanisms of action and non-overlapping toxicities may increase the therapeutic potential of anticancer drugs by decreasing systemic toxicity and overcoming drug resistance. Doxorubicin and docetaxel, two standard antineoplastic agents in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) therapy and ciprofloxacin were evaluated singly and in several simultaneous and sequential drug combination schemes, against PC-3 and LNCaP cell lines.

Methods: Cellular viability was determined by the resazurin assay and the assessment of synergism, additivity or antagonism was carried out by the median effect analysis.