Publications by authors named "Gianluca Festini"

Article Synopsis
  • DAC (Decitabine) is a hypomethylating agent used as a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), particularly beneficial for elderly patients who can't tolerate intensive chemotherapy, but its efficacy and safety in real-world settings are not well-established.
  • A study reviewing 104 AML patients treated with DAC across eight Italian centers found that 75% received DAC as their initial treatment, with the median age being 72.5 years, and revealed significant patient characteristics like high bone marrow blast counts and varying treatment backgrounds.
  • The results showed an overall response rate of 33%, with a notable difference between first-line treatment patients (42% response) and those receiving DAC as salvage therapy (14%), while factors like achieving complete or partial remission
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Second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (2G-TKIs) dasatinib and nilotinib produced historical rates of about 50% complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) and about 40% major molecular response (MMR) in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients failing imatinib. Direct comparisons between dasatinib and nilotinib are lacking, and few studies addressed the dynamics of deep molecular response (DMR) in a "real-life" setting. We retrospectively analyzed 163 patients receiving dasatinib ( = 95) or nilotinib ( = 68) as second-line therapy after imatinib.

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Objective: We performed an external and multicentric validation of the predictive value of abdominal computed tomography (aCT) on time to first treatment (TTFT) in early stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients.

Methods: aCT was performed at diagnosis in 181 Rai 0 patients enrolled in the O-CLL1-GISL trial (clinicaltrial.gov ID:NCT00917549).

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Recent studies have described chromosome 2p gain as a recurrent lesion in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We investigated the 2p gain and its relationship with common prognostic biomarkers in a prospective series of 69 clinical monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (cMBL) and 218 early stage (Binet A) CLL patients. The 2p gain was detected by FISH in 17 patients (6%, 16 CLL, and 1 cMBL) and further characterized by single nucleotide polymorphism-array.

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Purpose: Chromosome 13q14 deletion occurs in a substantial number of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and it is believed to play a pathogenetic role. The exact mechanisms involved in this lesion have not yet been fully elucidated because of its heterogeneity and the imprecise knowledge of the implicated genes. This study was addressed to further contribute to the molecular definition of this lesion in CLL.

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IGHV mutational status and ZAP-70 or CD38 expression correlate with clinical course in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The three markers may be discordant in the single case and there is no consensus on their combined use in clinical practise. This multicenter study investigated this issue.

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Distinct genetic abnormalities, such as TP53 deletion at 17p13.1, have been identified as having adverse prognostic relevance in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), and conventional cytogenetic studies have shown that TP53 deletion in B-CLL is mainly associated with the loss of 17p due to complex chromosomal rearrangements. We used an integrative genomic approach to investigate the significance of 17p loss in 18 B-CLLs in Binet stage A, carrying a TP53 monoallelic deletion detected by means of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

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