Precancerous and cancerous lesions of the uterine cervix are known to be associated with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The screening of high-risk (HR)-HPV infection in the female population has led to the discovery of several cases of a double cervix, a congenital malformation that is very rare. The purpose of this study was to evaluate HR-HPV infections in women with a double cervix within the National Cervical Cancer Screening program of the Lazio region (Italy).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral genetic investigations were conducted to identify germline and somatic mutations in somatotropinomas, a subtype of pituitary tumors. To our knowledge, we report the first acromegaly patient carrying a pathogenic variant: c.2410G>A (rs79658334), p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUterine tumors resembling ovarian sex-cord tumors (UTROSCT) are thought to develop from pluripotent uterine mesenchymal cells or endometrial stromal cells with secondary sex-cord differentiation. The patient was a 73-year-old postmenopausal woman who had abnormal vaginal bleeding, and she underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. The diagnosis was a case of UTROSCT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recent approval of PARP inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic -castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients with BRCA mutations firstly introduced the possibility of proposing a targeted treatment in this disease. However, the availability of this therapeutic option raises a number of questions concerning the management of prostate cancer in everyday clinical practice: the timing and method of detecting BRCA mutations, the therapeutic implications of the detection, and the screening of the members of the family of a prostate cancer patient with a BRCA alteration. These challenging issues led the Italian Society for Uro-Oncology (SIUrO) to organise a Consensus Conference aimed to develop suggestions capable of supporting clinicians managing prostate cancer patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by earlier recurrence and shorter survival compared with other types of breast cancer. Moreover, approximately 15 to 25% of all TNBC patients harbor germline BRCA (gBRCA) 1/2 mutations, which confer a more aggressive phenotype. However, TNBC seems to be particularly sensitive to chemotherapy, the so-called 'triple negative paradox'.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypophysitis is a rare and potentially life-threatening disease, characterized by an elevated risk of complications, such as the occurrence of acute central hypoadrenalism, persistent hypopituitarism, or the extension of the inflammatory process to the neighboring neurological structures. In recent years, a large number of cases has been described. The diagnosis of hypophysitis is complex because it is based on clinical and radiological criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiogenomics is a specific application of radiomics where imaging features are linked to genomic profiles. We aim to develop a radiogenomics model based on ovarian US images for predicting germline BRCA1/2 gene status in women with healthy ovaries. From January 2013 to December 2017 a total of 255 patients addressed to germline BRCA1/2 testing and pelvic US documenting normal ovaries, were retrospectively included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThanks to personalized medicine trends and collaborations between industry, clinical research groups and regulatory agencies, next generation sequencing (NGS) is turning into a common practice faster than one could have originally expected. When considering clinical applications of NGS in oncology, a rapid workflow for DNA extraction from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples, as well as producing high quality library preparation, can be real challenges. Here we consider these targets and how applying effective automation technology to NGS workflows may help improve yield, timing and quality-control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Endocrinol Metab
September 2019
Hypophysitis is a rare and potentially life-threatening disease, characterized by an elevated risk of complications, such as occurrence of acute central hypoadrenalism, persistent hypopituitarism, or extension of the inflammatory process to the neighboring neurological structures. In recent years, a large number of patients have been described as being affected by hypophysitis, due to the increased administration of immuno-chemotherapies. At the present time, the heterogeneous nature of hypophysitis diagnostic criteria and of the treatment protocols makes the management of affected patients difficult.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several prognostic factors were proposed to improve early detection of recurrence after liver resection of metastases of colorectal cancer. Circulating tumor cell-related transcripts were evaluated in colorectal cancer patients with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to investigate usefulness of carcinoembryonic antigen CAM5, epidermal growth factor receptor, and ERCC1 transcripts in the bloodstream as predictive factors of recurrence in patients who underwent liver resection for metastases of colorectal cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: Primary autoimmune hypophysitis (PAH) evolves in most untreated cases in irreversible hypopituitarism. PAH outcome, instead, after immunosuppressive treatment has not been completely clarified.
Objective: To evaluate hypophysitis and pituitary function outcomes.
Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) partially recovers both the instilled saline and the alveolar fluid, so-called epithelial lining fluid (ELF), but a correction for the dilution due to the BAL technique itself is needed to know the amount of recovered ELF. In this regard, urea nitrogen may be useful and has been proposed to calculate ELF. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a new method to measure urea nitrogen in BAL fluid (BALF).
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