Publications by authors named "Daniela Femia"

Background: Although prognosis of NENs is affected by several features including tumour burden, the specific role of this factor in pancreatic NENs (PanNENs) and gastrointestinal NENs (GI NENs) is not well established.

Aim: To compare the prognostic role of tumour burden in PanNENs and GI NENs.

Patients And Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of stage IV PanNENs and GI NENs.

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The chemopreventive effect of aspirin (ASA) has been observed in the setting of colorectal cancer and other solid neoplasms. Recently, ASA has demonstrated a promising anti-proliferative effect on GEP-NENs . However, the direct anti-neoplastic impact of ASA on GEP-NEN clinical outcome is yet to be clarified.

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Advanced Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a very aggressive, rare neuroendocrine tumor of the skin with a high frequency of locoregional recurrence and metastasis, and a high mortality rate. Surgical resection, sentinel lymph node biopsy, and radiotherapy represent the gold standard of treatment in patients with localized disease, while chemotherapy has a significant role in the treatment of advanced disease. However, no definitive evidence on the survival impact of radiotherapy in the advanced stages has been provided to date, and response to chemotherapy remains brief in the majority of cases, indicating an urgent need for alternative approaches.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers looked at how glycemia (blood sugar levels) and metformin (a diabetes drug) might affect people with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) who were being treated with certain medications.
  • They studied 445 patients from different medical centers in Italy and found that those with diabetes had better outcomes than those without diabetes.
  • Patients using metformin had even longer progression-free survival times, meaning they lived longer without the cancer getting worse.
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No validated prognostic tool is available for predicting overall survival (OS) of patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (WDNETs). This study, conducted in three independent cohorts of patients from five different European countries, aimed to develop and validate a classification prognostic score for OS in patients with stage IV WDNETs. We retrospectively collected data on 1387 patients: (i) patients treated at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori (Milan, Italy;  = 515); (ii) European cohort of rare NET patients included in the European RARECAREnet database ( = 457); (iii) Italian multicentric cohort of pancreatic NET (pNETs) patients treated at 24 Italian institutions ( = 415).

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Introduction: Besides data reported in a Phase-III trial, data on sunitinib in pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (panNETs) are scanty.

Aim: To evaluate sunitinib efficacy and tolerability in panNETs patients treated in a real-world setting.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective analysis of progressive panNETs treated with sunitinib.

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Metformin (MET) has recently emerged as a potentially active agent in cancer prevention and treatment. MET is thought to exert its antitumor effects either via modification of systemic metabolism or through cell-autonomous effects (e.g.

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Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a heterogeneous class of diseases characterized by challenging management. Preclinical evidence shows that the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway plays a central role in the pathogenesis and progression of NETs. Everolimus is a direct inhibitor of this pathway, and therefore this molecule appears to be a well-grounded strategy for the treatment of NETs, capable of changing clinical practice.

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We report the case of a 38-year-old patient who was diagnosed with a cerebellar well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor (WDNET) in 2009. At first glance, we believed that it was a metastasis from an unrecognized WDNET arising outside the cerebellum. However, despite a prolonged follow-up of 6 years, an extracranial WDNET has never been found.

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Introduction: Small intestinal (SI) neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are relatively rare tumors. Due to the lack of symptom or specific symptoms, SI-NETs are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, making therapy challenging. The management of patients with advanced stage SI-NETS requires a multidisciplinary approach that combines surgical and medical treatment including novel targeted molecular therapies.

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In the last five years, everolimus has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of different origins; its efficacy and safety were explored in the RADIANT trials, the last of which (RADIANT-4) has been recently published (December 2015). Overall, evidence collected from the RADIANT studies holds promise to change clinical practice for the treatment of NETs.In this paper, we comment on the role of everolimus within the therapeutic algorithm for NETs treatment, based on the systematic analysis of the RADIANT trials and our experience.

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A bidirectional relationship seems to exist between diabetes mellitus and development of pancreatic tumors. Metformin, the most widely used drug in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, has recently emerged as a potentially active agent in cancer chemoprevention and treatment. In this article, we discuss the potential correlation between glycemic status, administration of antiglycemic treatments, such as metformin or insulin, and prognosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors patients treated with everolimus and octreotide, on the basis of existing evidence and our experience.

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