Publications by authors named "Anna Scattone"

The role of macrophages (Mo) and their prognostic impact in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) remain controversial. By regulating the lipid metabolism, Liver-X-Receptors (LXRs) control Mo polarization/inflammatory response, and their pharmacological modulation is under clinical investigation to treat human cancers, including lymphomas. Herein, we surveyed the role of LXRs in DLBCL for prognostic purposes.

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The unstructured nature of Real-World (RW) data from onco-hematological patients and the scarce accessibility to integrated systems restrain the use of RW information for research purposes. Natural Language Processing (NLP) might help in transposing unstructured reports into standardized electronic health records. We exploited NLP to develop an automated tool, named ARGO (Automatic Record Generator for Onco-hematology) to recognize information from pathology reports and populate electronic case report forms (eCRFs) pre-implemented by REDCap.

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Background: The increase in immunohistochemical and molecular predictive tests in lung cancer requires new strategies for managing small samples taken during bronchoscopic procedures. The value of Rapid On Site Evaluation (ROSE) during conventional bronchoscopic procedures on endobronchial neoplasms in optimizing small biopsies and cytologlogical tissue specimens for diagnostic testing, and ancillary studies was evaluated.

Method: ROSE on touch imprint cytology (TIC) and brushing was performed on 690 consecutive cases of patients undergoing biopsies, using fiber optic bronchoscopy.

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Rationale: Anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma (BI-ALCL) is a rare primitive lymphoma described in women with breast implant prostheses, which has been arousing interest in recent years due to its potentially high social impact. The difficult diagnosis associated with the high and increasing number of prosthetic implants worldwide has led to hypothesize an underestimation of the real impact of the disease among prosthesis-bearing women. The aim of this work is to search for specific radiological signs of disease linked to the chronic inflammatory pathogenetic mechanism.

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Diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM) is a rare malignant neoplasm with a poor survival. Although some advances in knowledge have been obtained for the pleural form, much less is known about DMPM. Advantages in terms of prognosis are still limited and strong efforts need to be made.

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Introduction: Mast cell leukemia (MCL) is one of the most aggressive forms of Systemic Mastocytosis (SM), a complex family of rare diseases, for which standard therapies are very few. MCL represents only <1% cases of SM and this is the reason why there are no specific clinical trials to better explore this disease. As a consequence, MCL is treated and grouped within other forms of SM, being all KIT-driven diseases; however, its KIT dysregulation leads to uncontrolled activation of mast cells (MCs), which correlates with forms of myeloid acute leukemia (AML).

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Purpose: The onset characteristics of the anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BI-ALCL) are non-specific and the diagnosis is often difficult and based on clinical suspicion and cytological sampling. The presence of non-pathognomonic radiological signs may delay the diagnosis of BI-ALCL, influencing patient prognosis. This could have an important social impact, considering that the incidence of BI-ALCL correlates with the number of prosthetic implants, which is in constant increase worldwide.

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Purpose: Extramammary breast tumors are quite unusual but they might represent the first semiotic sign of non negative mammography. Thus, the need for an early and accurate diagnosis is crucial, with the purpose of planning and optimize the therapeuthical strategy and consequently to improve the clinical outcome of patients.

Methods: Due to the intrinsic characteristics of this technique, CESM lends itself as a useful and reliable tool for a complex diagnosis, since it may simultaneously provide both the data of the mammographic semiotic and the dynamic one of an examination with a contrast medium.

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Myeloid sarcoma (MS) represents a rare disease with an adverse clinical outcome for patients not candidate to acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-like chemotherapies. Here we present the case of an elderly patient affected by a bilateral breast localization of MS treated with the hypomethylating agent decitabine associated to radiotherapy. The association of the two treatment modalities has allowed an optimal and long-lasting disease control.

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Background: Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are widely considered a key sign of the immune interaction between host and tumor, and potentially prognostic biomarkers of good or bad outcome in many cancers, included invasive breast cancer (BC). However, results about the association between TIL typology, location and BC prognosis, are controversial. The aim of the study was to evaluated the prognostic significance of TIL subtypes (CD4+, CD8+, FOXP3+ T cells) and their location (stromal "s" and intratumoral "i" CD4+ and CD8+) in BC patients, focusing on the association between these markers and immunocheckpoint molecules such as cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and its receptor (PD-1).

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Background: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement represents a landmark in the targeted therapy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a sensitive and specific method to detect ALK protein expression, possibly an alternative to fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In this study, the concordance of FISH and IHC to determine ALK status was evaluated, particularly focusing on discordant cases.

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Introduction: Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy of the thoracic cavity caused by prior asbestos exposure. In the peritoneum the mesothelioma is an extremely rare condition. In the present preliminary study, high-resolution array-comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH) was performed to identify genetic imbalances in a series of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma cases.

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Introduction: A pathologic grading system (PGS) for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is warranted to better identify different risk categories of patients, plan therapeutic options, and activate clinical trials.

Methods: A series of 940 patients with MPM (328 in a training set and 612 in a validation set) that was diagnosed between October 1980 and June 2015 at the participant institutions was retrospectively assembled. A PGS was constructed by attributing to each histologic parameter, independent at multivariate analysis with excellent reproducibility (κ > 0.

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths throughout the world. The majority of patients are diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic disease when surgery, the best curative option, is no longer feasible. Thus, the prognosis of lung cancer remains poor and heterogeneous and new biomarkers are needed.

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Unlabelled: Malignant mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive tumor with limited therapeutic options. We report a case of a malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) epithelioid type, with environmental asbestos exposure, in a 36-year-old man, with a long survival (17 years). The patient received standard treatment which included cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC).

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Rearrangements of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene are present in 3% to 7% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). Patients harboring ALK rearrangements show very favourable outcomes if treated with targeted agents, among which crizotinib is the first and best studied. Crizotinib, an oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor of ALK, MET, and ROS1 kinases, is a very active and well tolerated drug.

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Understanding the expression of proteins involved in DNA damage response could improve knowledge of the pathways that contribute to familial and sporadic breast cancer (BC). We aimed to assess the different roles of BRCA1, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1), BRCT-repeat inhibitor of hTERT expression (BRIT1) and novel SWItch 5 (SWI5) expression in 130 sporadic and 73 familial BC samples, by immunohistochemistry. In the sporadic group, negative nuclear BRCA1 (nBRCA1) expression was associated with positive PgR (p = 0.

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Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide and cytology is often the only diagnostic approach. Na(+)/H(+) exchanger regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1) is a protein implicated in various cancers. However, the function of NHERF1 in lung cancer has not been described.

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We describe a unique case of brain metastases presenting as first symptom of a malignant mesothelioma (MM). MM is a highly aggressive tumor of the serous membrane that is generally believed to be rarely metastasizing. Recently, the reports of long surviving cases and larger literature reviews have suggested that cerebral metastases are not so uncommon.

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Aims: To evaluate the use of the Wilms' tumour gene (WT1) marker and histomorphological parameters as indicators of prognosis in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM).

Methods And Results: Histological samples of 31 MPM were stained immunohistochemically for the WT1 protein. The results were quantified by recording the number of stained nuclei, and then correlated with patient survival.

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Malignant mesotheliomas of the hernial sac are uncommon and only a few cases have been diagnosed incidentally during herniorrhaphy procedures. The prognosis is poor and patient management is difficult because current treatment modalities do little to prolong survival. Molecular markers could be useful to identify potential therapeutic targets.

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Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma arising from the inguinal hernia sac is rare. We report the case of a 71-year-old man examined in our emergency department for a bilateral inguinoscrotal hernia, which was recurrent in the right groin, and primary and incarcerated in the left groin. An emergency exploratory operation revealed a firm mass, 10 cm in diameter, in the left inguinal hernia sac.

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