Publications by authors named "Conteduca V"

Article Synopsis
  • Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing is highlighted as a valuable tool for prognosis and treatment guidance in urological tumors, providing insights into disease progression and drug resistance.
  • A literature review showed that ctDNA levels increase from localized to metastatic disease in prostate and urothelial cancers, suggesting its potential in risk stratification and treatment choices.
  • Although ctDNA analysis has promising implications for clinical management, further research, particularly in renal cell carcinoma, is needed to fully integrate it into routine practice through a collaborative approach among various specialists.
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The definition of "non-metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer" (nmHSPC) can be applied to patients with prostate cancer (PC) who are androgen-deprivation therapy-naïve and without evidence of metastatic disease. This definition includes heterogeneous situations; however, PC patients at high risk of metastatic spread - and who have not started a hormonal treatment - constitute a unique category with unmet clinical needs. This narrative review critically discusses the advances that characterize the rapidly evolving diagnostic and therapeutic scenario in the nmHSPC setting.

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Metabolic rewiring promotes cancer cell adaptation to a hostile microenvironment, representing a hallmark of cancer. This process involves mitochondrial function and is mechanistically linked to the balance between mitochondrial biogenesis (MB) and mitophagy. The molecular chaperone TRAP1 is overexpressed in 60-70% of human colorectal cancers (CRC) and its over-expression correlates with poor clinical outcome, being associated with many cancer cell functions (i.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how specific immune cell types in blood samples from patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) can affect survival rates.
  • Researchers analyzed pre-treatment blood samples from 152 patients and found that lower CD8 T-cell counts and higher monocyte levels were linked to shorter survival.
  • Their results suggest that these immune cell types could act as important biomarkers for mCRPC management, supporting the need for further research in clinical trials.
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Introduction: The administration of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) is a common practice to reduce gastro-esophageal adverse events associated with drug treatments but may impair absorption and exposure to oncology drugs. This study investigated the effect of concomitant administration of PPIs and pazopanib, sunitinib and cabozantinib on survival of patients with metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma (mRCC).

Patients And Methods: Total 451 patients receiving pazopanib, sunitinib and cabozantinib as first line treatment were enrolled in this retrospective study.

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Aberrations in the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway in prostate cancer (PCa) provide a unique opportunity to develop therapeutic strategies that take advantage of the reduced tumor ability to repair DNA damage. Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPi) have been shown to prolong the survival of PCa patients with HRR defects, particularly in those with Breast Cancer type 1 susceptibility protein/Breast Cancer type 2 susceptibility protein alterations. To expand the benefit of PARPi to patients without detectable HRR alterations, multiple preclinical and clinical studies are addressing potential synergies between PARPi and androgen receptor signaling inhibitors, and these strategies are also being evaluated in combination with other drugs such as immune checkpoint inhibitors.

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DNA-damage repair (DDR) pathways alterations, a growing area of interest in oncology, are detected in about 20% of patient with prostate cancer and are associated with improved sensitivity to poly(ADP ribose) polymerases (PARP) inhibitors. In May 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two PARP inhibitors (olaparib and rucaparib) for prostate cancer treatment. Moreover, germline aberrations in DDR pathways genes have also been related to familial or hereditary prostate cancer, requiring tailored health-care programs.

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Background: The treatment of heavily pretreated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) represents an unmet medical need and is still challenging.

Objectives: The primary objective was to assess the effectiveness of the lenvatinib plus everolimus combination and the secondary objective was the toxicity profile of this combination.

Design: We conducted a longitudinal retrospective study examining mRCC patients pre-treated with one or more lines of therapy among different cancer centers in Italy.

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Background: The prevalence of pathogenic germline mutations in DNA damage repair (gDDR) genes in the Italian population is unknown.

Objective: In this prospective multicenter cohort study, we evaluated the prevalence of gDDR alterations in the Italian population affected by metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) and analyzed the impact on response to therapy, survival, and time to castration resistance.

Design Setting And Participants: In an observational prospective trial, 300 consecutive Italian mPCa patients, enrolled in the Meet-Uro-10 trial from three academic Italian centers, were recruited between 2017 and 2019 and were screened for gDDR mutations in 107 genes.

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Background: Currently, several therapies are available for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) but no specific clinical factors to personalize treatment. We first sought the prognostic value of duration on androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (HSPC) in patients receiving androgen-receptor-signaling inhibitors (ARSI) for mCRPC.

Methods: A multicenter cohort of mCRPC patients who started ARSI between July 2011 and October 2021 was identified.

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Background: PARP inhibitors (PARPis) are effective treatment options for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) as single agents or in combination with androgen receptor-targeted agents (ARTA). However, a clinically relevant adverse effect of these agents is hematological toxicity, a typical class adverse event (AE), which can lead to treatment modifications and discontinuations.

Objective: We aimed to analyze the risk of hematological AEs, including anemia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia secondary to PARPi treatments in mCRPC.

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Background: Baseline plasma androgen-receptor copy number (AR-CN) is a promising biomarker for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) outcome and treatment response; however, the role of its longitudinal testing is unproven. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of AR-CN assessed before subsequent treatment lines in mCRPC patients.

Methods: A subgroup analysis of a prospective multicenter biomarker trial (IRSTB030) was carried out.

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Despite remarkable progress in the last decade, metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) remains incurable. The approval of PARP inhibitors (PARPis) represents a milestone in this field, which definitively enters the era of precision medicine, as mPCa is often enriched for defects of homologous recombination repair genes. PARPis are now used as single agents for patients with metastatic castration-resistant PCa.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The implementation guidelines for BRCA1/2 somatic testing do not specifically address predictive testing for bone metastases in metastatic prostate cancer, highlighting gaps in laboratory practice.
  • - A multidisciplinary team aims to create a protocol to ensure high-quality nucleic acid extraction from bone metastasis biopsies, focusing particularly on a critical decalcification process.
  • - The protocol outlines three key phases: pre-analytical (sample processing), analytical (library preparation for NGS), and post-analytical (reporting genetic variants) to effectively aid clinicians in cancer therapy management using PARP Inhibitors.
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Intracranial metastases in prostate cancer are uncommon but clinically aggressive. A detailed molecular characterization of prostate cancer intracranial metastases would improve our understanding of their pathogenesis and the search for new treatment strategies. We evaluated the clinical and molecular characteristics of 36 patients with metastatic prostate cancer to either the dura or brain parenchyma.

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Up to 80% of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients develop bone metastases during the natural history of disease and about 25% harbor mutations in DNA damage repair (DDR) genes. This retrospective observational study evaluated the prevalence of DDR alterations in CRPC patients and their effect on the clinical outcomes associated with bone metastases. The mutational status of CRPC patients was analyzed per FoundationOne analysis in tissue biopsy or, when it was not possible, in liquid biopsy performed at the onset of metastatic CRPC (mCRPC).

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Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer but the management of advanced prostate cancer remains a therapeutic challenge, despite the survival benefits imparted by several therapeutic discoveries targeting different molecular pathways. The mechanisms of resistance to androgen deprivation and tumour progression to lethal metastatic variants are often regulated by androgen receptor (AR) bypass mechanisms and/or neuroendocrine differentiation. Moreover, recent data also suggested the involvement of adaptive and innate infiltrated immune cells in prostate tumour progression.

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Purpose: Patients with neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) are often managed with immunotherapy regimens extrapolated from small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). We sought to evaluate the tumor immune landscape of NEPC compared with other prostate cancer types and SCLC.

Experimental Design: In this retrospective study, a cohort of 170 patients with 230 RNA-sequencing and 104 matched whole-exome sequencing data were analyzed.

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Background: At diagnosis, more than 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) suffer from significant weight loss due to malnutrition which is a major concern for patient management, and this may negatively impact treatment outcomes and patient prognosis.

Patients And Methods: We performed an observational, retrospective study on patients with metastatic PC (mPC) undergoing first-line chemotherapy with nab-Paclitaxel containing schedules and receiving or not receiving nutritional support (NS) and pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to investigate their relevance in this setting.

Results: We observed that PERT and ancillary dietary interventions are related to longer overall survival (OS; median: 16.

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Ovarian cancer is a highly lethal gynecological malignancy. Drug resistance rapidly occurs, and different therapeutic approaches are needed. So far, no biomarkers have been discovered to predict early response to therapies in the case of multi-treated ovarian cancer patients.

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Background: There is a considerable need to incorporate biomarkers of resistance to new antiandrogen agents in the management of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Methods: We conducted a phase II trial of enzalutamide in first-line chemo-naïve asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic mCRPC and analyzed the prognostic value of TMPRSS2-ERG and other biomarkers, including circulating tumor cells (CTCs), androgen receptor splice variant (AR-V7) in CTCs and plasma Androgen Receptor copy number gain (AR-gain). These biomarkers were correlated with treatment response and survival outcomes and developed a clinical-molecular prognostic model using penalized cox-proportional hazard model.

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Background: Immunotherapy has not achieved improvement of survival in prostate cancer patients. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in tumor microenvironment can hamper its efficacy. Some preclinical studies explored the role of MDSCs in prostate cancer development.

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Androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPIs) have been increasingly offered to older patients with prostate cancer (PC). However, prognostic factors relevant to their outcome with ARPIs are still little investigated. The Meet-URO network ADHERE was a prospective multicentre observational cohort study evaluating and monitoring adherence to ARPIs metastatic castrate-resistant PC (mCRPC) patients aged ≥70.

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