Specificity ratings for English data.

A dataset of specificity ratings for English words is hereby presented, analyzed and discussed in relation with other collections of speaker-generated ratings, including concreteness. Both, specificity and concreteness are analyzed in their ability to explain decision latencies in lexical and semantic tasks, showing important individual contributions. Specificity ratings are collected through best-worst scaling method on the words included in the ANEW dataset (Bradley and Lang in Affective norms for English words (ANEW): instruction manual and affective ratings (Tech.

CONcreTEXT norms: Concreteness ratings for Italian and English words in context.

Concreteness is a fundamental dimension of word semantic representation that has attracted more and more interest to become one of the most studied variables in the psycholinguistic and cognitive neuroscience literature in the last decade. Concreteness effects have been found at both the brain and the behavioral levels, but they may vary depending on the constraints of the context and task demands. In this study, we collected concreteness norms for English and Italian words presented in different context sentences to allow better control and manipulation of concreteness in future psycholinguistic research.

Linguistic profile automated characterisation in pluripotential clinical high-risk mental state (CHARMS) conditions: methodology of a multicentre observational study.

Introduction: Language is usually considered the social vehicle of thought in intersubjective communications. However, the relationship between language and high-order cognition seems to evade this canonical and unidirectional description (ie, the notion of language as a simple means of thought communication). In recent years, clinical high at-risk mental state (CHARMS) criteria (evolved from the Ultra-High-Risk paradigm) and the introduction of the Clinical Staging system have been proposed to address the dynamicity of early psychopathology.

Health professionals' perception of appropriateness of care: a qualitative study in Italian pediatric hospices.

Background: Appropriateness is particularly relevant in palliative care, an area in which it is essential to question the real need for treatments. Few studies explored the perception of appropriateness by professionals in pediatric palliative care, revealing the conflict sometimes faced when confronted with the uncertainty of prognosis and end-of-life decisions.

Aims: The objective of this study is firstly to investigate the perception that doctors, nurses and psychologists, operating in Italian pediatric hospices, have of the appropriateness of the care they provide.

First enantioselective synthesis of gingesulfonic acids and unequivocal determination of their absolute stereochemistry.

Herein we report the first organocatalysed enantioselective synthesis of gingesulfonic acids and shogasulfonic acids via a mild and convenient aminothiourea-catalysed conjugate addition of bisulfite to the olefin moiety of α,β-unsaturated carbonyls-a technology previously reported by us. A series of optically active naturally occurring sulfonic acids are prepared in their natural and unnatural configurations, and their absolute configurations are unequivocally confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffractometry.

Enhanced efficacy of AKT and FAK kinase combined inhibition in squamous cell lung carcinomas with stable reduction in PTEN.

Squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC) accounts for 30% of patients with NSCLC and to date, no molecular targeted agents are approved for this type of tumor. However, recent studies have revealed several oncogenic mutations in SCC patients, including an alteration of the PI3K/AKT pathway, i.e.

Combined Inhibition of CDK4/6 and PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathways Induces a Synergistic Anti-Tumor Effect in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Cells.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a progressive malignancy associated to the exposure of asbestos fibers. The most frequently inactivated tumor suppressor gene in MPM is CDKN2A/ARF, encoding for the cell cycle inhibitors p16 and p14, deleted in about 70% of MPM cases. Considering the high frequency of alterations of this gene, we tested in MPM cells the efficacy of palbociclib (PD-0332991), a highly selective inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and breast cancer: Beyond the prognostic and predictive utility.

The importance of the immune system as a potent anti-tumor defense has been consolidated in recent times, and novel immune-related therapies are today demonstrating a strong clinical benefit in the setting of several solid neoplasms. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes reflect the attempt of the host to eradicate malignancies, and during the last decades, they have been shown to possess an interesting prognostic utility for breast cancer, especially in case of HER2 positive and triple-negative molecular subtypes. In parallel, the clinical evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes has been shown to effectively predict treatment outcomes in both neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings.

CDK4/6 inhibitors in HER2-positive breast cancer.

Notwithstanding the continuous progress made in cancer treatment in the last 20 years, and the availability of new targeted therapies, metastatic Breast Cancer (BC) is still incurable. Targeting the cell cycle machinery has emerged as an attractive strategy to tackle cancer progression, showing very promising results in the preclinical and clinical settings. The first selective inhibitors of CDK4/6 received breakthrough status and FDA approval in combination with letrozole (February 2015) and fulvestrant (February 2016) as first-line therapy in ER-positive advanced and metastatic BC.

Targeting the androgenic pathway in elderly patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Background: The novel hormonal drugs have recently entered in the armamentarium of therapies for treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). First reports are available for their use in elderly men with CRPC.

Method: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has been performed.

Apatinib for the treatment of gastric cancer.

Introduction: Apatinib, a small-molecule inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2, has demonstrated encouraging anti-cancer activity in gastric cancer within both in vitro and in vivo models.

Areas Covered: Apatinib's efficacy, tolerability and safety have been evaluated in one Phase II and one Phase III study in metastatic/advanced gastric cancer. In this review, we focus on the mechanism of action of apatinib, its pharmacokinetic profile and its clinical activity in the treatment of advanced/metastatic gastric cancer.

A Phase II study of olaparib in breast cancer patients: biological evaluation from a 'window of opportunity' trial.

The OLTRE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT02681562) is an open-label, 'window of opportunity' Phase II controlled trial to evaluate the biological activity of olaparib in locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer compared with other subtypes of locally advanced breast cancer patients carrying germinal BRCA mutation receiving olaparib with the same treatment approach. The primary end point is to investigate the correlation between baseline gene and protein expression profile in order to identify possible predictive markers of response to olaparib.

Apatinib: A novel receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of gastric cancer.

Metastatic gastric cancer is a lethal disease characterized by a very short overall survival, underlining a critical need of new therapeutic options. Unfortunately, although several molecular targets have been investigated, only very few recently approved agents, such as trastuzumab in the HER2-positive setting and ramucirumab, led to a clinical improvement in the outcome of metastatic gastric cancer patients. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) is one of the most potent angiogenic factors and is a signalling molecule secreted by many solid tumours.

High-Dose Chemotherapy and Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation as Adjuvant Treatment in High-Risk Breast Cancer: Data from the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry.

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess toxicity and efficacy of adjuvant high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) in 583 high-risk breast cancer (BC) patients (>3 positive nodes) who were transplanted between 1995 and 2005 in Europe. All patients received surgery before transplant, and 55 patients (9.5%) received neoadjuvant treatment before surgery.

Monoclonal antibodies-based treatment in gastric cancer: current status and future perspectives.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death, and despite having improved treatment modalities over the last decade, for most patients, only modest improvements have been seen in overall survival. Recent progress in understanding the molecular biology of GC and the related signaling pathways offers, from the clinical point of view, promising advances for selected groups of patients. In the past, targeted therapies have significantly impacted the treatment strategy of several common solid tumors such as breast, colorectal, and lung cancers.

Breast cancer circulating biomarkers: advantages, drawbacks, and new insights.

As of today, the level of individualization of cancer therapies has reached a level that 20 years ago would be considered visionary. However, most of the diagnostic, prognostic, and therapy-predictive procedures which aim to improve the overall level of personalization are based on the evaluation of tumor tissue samples, therefore requiring surgical operations with consequent low compliance for patients and high costs for the hospital. Hence, the research of a panel of circulating indicators which may serve as source of information about tumor characteristics and which may be obtainable by a simple withdrawal of peripheral blood today represents a growing field of interest.

Ibrutinib: from bench side to clinical implications.

The activation of the B cell receptor (BCR) is nowadays known to play a primary role in the etiopathogenesis of a multitude of B cell malignancies, being one of the main factors responsible for the enhanced proliferation and survival of transformed cells. Thanks to the characterization and continuous discovery of the pathways driving B cell proliferation in consequence to BCR activation, it has been possible to develop a small molecule inhibitor specifically antagonizing the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), an enzyme located in an early strategic position within the whole pathway. Ibrutinib, formerly PCI-32765, is a first in class, potent, specific, irreversible and relatively safe BTK inhibitor, demonstrating so far an impressive efficacy in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, diffuse large B cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), Waldenström macroglobulinemia and multiple myeloma.

International Expert Consensus on Primary Systemic Therapy in the Management of Early Breast Cancer: Highlights of the Fifth Symposium on Primary Systemic Therapy in the Management of Operable Breast Cancer, Cremona, Italy (2013).

Expert consensus-based recommendations regarding key issues in the use of primary (or neoadjuvant) systemic treatment (PST) in patients with early breast cancer are a valuable resource for practising oncologists. PST remains a valuable therapeutic approach for the assessment of biological antitumor activity and clinical efficacy of new treatments in clinical trials. Neoadjuvant trials provide endpoints, such as pathological complete response (pCR) to treatment, that potentially translate into meaningful improvements in overall survival and disease-free survival.

Immune-related strategies driving immunotherapy in breast cancer treatment: a real clinical opportunity.

Because its original use as a treatment for hematologic disease, more recently immunotherapy has emerged as a novel effective therapeutic strategy for solid malignancies, such as melanoma and prostate carcinoma. For breast carcinoma, an immunologic therapeutic approach has not been well evaluated, even though there is evidence to suggest it would be a successful novel strategy, especially taking into account the high mortality rate of the most aggressive variants of this heterogeneous disease. Here, we briefly describe the most recently awarded immune-based therapies with a consolidated or potential implication for the treatment of solid malignancies.