Exploring machine learning tools in a retrospective case-study of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer treated with first-line immunotherapy: A feasibility single-centre experience.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) models are emerging as promising tools to identify predictive features among data coming from health records. Their application in clinical routine is still challenging, due to technical limits and to explainability issues in this specific setting. Response to standard first-line immunotherapy (ICI) in metastatic Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is an interesting population for machine learning (ML), since up to 30% of patients do not benefit.

Single-Nuclei Transcriptome Profiling Reveals Intra-Tumoral Heterogeneity and Characterizes Tumor Microenvironment Architecture in a Murine Melanoma Model.

Malignant melanoma is an aggressive cancer, with a high risk of metastasis and mortality rates, characterized by cancer cell heterogeneity and complex tumor microenvironment (TME). Single cell biology is an ideal and powerful tool to address these features at a molecular level. However, this approach requires enzymatic cell dissociation that can influence cellular coverage.

CTC-derived pancreatic cancer models serve as research tools and are suitable for precision medicine approaches.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) poses significant clinical challenges, often presenting as unresectable with limited biopsy options. Here, we show that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) offer a promising alternative, serving as a "liquid biopsy" that enables the generation of in vitro 3D models and highly aggressive in vivo models for functional and molecular studies in advanced PDAC. Within the retrieved CTC pool (median 65 CTCs/5 mL), we identify a subset (median content 8.

From Tumor Macroenvironment to Tumor Microenvironment: The Prognostic Role of the Immune System in Oral and Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: The interplay between cancer cells and the immune system is crucial in cancer progression and treatment. In this regard, the tumor immune microenvironment and macroenvironment, marked by systemic inflammation markers and TILs, could be considered key prognostic factors in tumors, including oral and lung squamous cell carcinoma.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective clinical study on patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) and Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma (LUSCC), examining stages, comorbidities, treatments, and outcomes.

Unlocking the future of cancer diagnosis - promises and challenges of ctDNA-based liquid biopsies in non-small cell lung cancer.

The advent of liquid biopsies has brought significant changes to the diagnosis and monitoring of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), presenting both promise and challenges. Molecularly targeted drugs, capable of enhancing survival rates, are now available to around a quarter of NSCLC patients. However, to ensure their effectiveness, precision diagnosis is essential.

Presumptive pulmonary toxocariasis in a patient affected by acute myeloid leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma: case report and review of the literature in immunocompromised hosts.

Toxocariasis is a zoonosis transmitted by the nematode spp. Immunocompromised hosts are more susceptible than general population to bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections. In this population toxocariasis may present as exacerbation or reactivation and could have severe or atypical manifestations being a diagnostic challenge for healthcare providers.

hMENA isoforms regulate cancer intrinsic type I IFN signaling and extrinsic mechanisms of resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in NSCLC.

Background: Understanding how cancer signaling pathways promote an immunosuppressive program which sustains acquired or primary resistance to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is a crucial step in improving immunotherapy efficacy. Among the pathways that can affect ICB response is the interferon (IFN) pathway that may be both detrimental and beneficial. The immune sensor retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) induces IFN activation and secretion and is activated by actin cytoskeleton disturbance.

Assessing the role of colonic and other anatomical sites uptake by [ F]FDG-PET/CT and immune-inflammatory peripheral blood indexes in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Inflammation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may impair the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and can be indicated by peripheral blood inflammatory indexes. 2-deoxy-2-[ F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([ F] FDG-PET/CT) may be used as a marker of inflammation by measuring glucose metabolism in different colonic sites.

Methods: This retrospective analysis aimed to investigate the correlation between [ F] FDGPET/CT SUV in six gastrointestinal districts, the spleen, the pharynx and the larynx alongside the most avid tumor lesion with peripheral blood inflammatory indexes, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic immune-inflammatory index (SII, i.

spp. and Cytomegalovirus Co-Infection in Patient Affected by Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

To our knowledge, we have described the first case of /Cytomegalovirus (CMV) concomitant infection that occurred in a European country. The patient was a 76-year-old woman affected by relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma who presented interstitial pneumonia with a rapidly progressive worsening of respiratory insufficiency, leading to cardiac dysfunction and consequent death. CMV reactivation is a common complication in immunocompromised patients, while hyperinfection/disseminated strongyloidiasis (HS/DS) is rare in low endemic regions, but has been widely described in Southeast Asia and American countries.

Robot-assisted Nipple Sparing Mastectomy: Recent Advancements and Ongoing Controversies.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent technical advancements in RNSM, describe the ongoing teaching programs, and discuss the ongoing controversies.

Recent Findings: Robot-assisted nipple sparing mastectomy (RNSM) is the newest addition to the armamentarium of surgical techniques for patients who require a mastectomy. The potential benefits of using the da Vinci® Robotic Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) are the small 3D camera and lighting offering superior visualization, the Endowrist robotic instruments offering greater range of motion, and surgeon being at a seated position at the console rendering a more ergonomic operating position.

Gene Fusion Detection in NSCLC Routine Clinical Practice: Targeted-NGS or FISH?

The ability to identify the broadest range of targetable gene fusions is crucial to facilitate personalized therapy selection for advanced lung adenocarcinoma (LuADs) patients harboring targetable receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) genomic alterations. In order to evaluate the most effective testing approach for LuAD targetable gene fusion detection, we analyzed 210 NSCLC selected clinical samples, comparing in situ (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, FISH, and ImmunoHistoChemistry, IHC) and molecular (targeted RNA Next-Generation Sequencing, NGS, and RealTime-PCR, RT-PCR) approaches. The overall concordance among these methods was high (>90%), and targeted RNA NGS was confirmed to be the most efficient technique for gene fusion identification in clinical practice, allowing the simultaneous analysis of a large set of genomic rearrangements at the RNA level.

Immunotherapy in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC): Current Evidence and Perspectives.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. Surgery is the most potentially curative therapeutic option for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The five-year survival for these patients remains poor and variable, depending on the stage of disease at diagnosis, and the risk of recurrence following tumor resection is high.

Emergency Department Visits among Cancer Patients during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a global impact. Patients with cancer, their caregivers, and physicians need to balance the challenges associated with COVID-19 while ensuring cancer care. Nevertheless, emotional distress and hospital departmental reorganization could have led to a decrease in ED admissions even among oncological patients.

Case report: Successful use of mepolizumab for immune checkpoint inhibitors-induced hypereosinophilic syndrome in two patients with solid malignancies.

Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) represents a group of blood disorders characterized by an absolute eosinophil count (AEC) > 1.5 × 103/μl in the peripheral blood, which eventually extravasate and cause organ damage. It can be primary or secondary to infections or tumors.

Case report: gene fusion in a patient with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma successfully treated with entrectinib.

Rearrangements involving the neurotrophin kinase () genes , and with different fusion partners have been observed in both adult and pediatric solid tumors. Larotrectinib and entrectinib have been the first tumor-agnostic compounds approved for the treatment of NTRK fusion-positive tumors. Here, we report the first case of a female patient with a diagnosis of stage IV lung adenocarcinoma harboring the gene fusion, and successfully treated with entrectinib.

KRAS in NSCLC: State of the Art and Future Perspectives.

In NSCLC, KRAS mutations occur in up to 30% of all cases, most frequently at codon 12 and 13. KRAS mutations have been linked to adenocarcinoma histology, positive smoking history, and Caucasian ethnicity, although differences have been described across KRAS mutational variants subtypes. KRAS mutations often concur with other molecular alterations, notably TP53, STK11, and KEAP1, which could play an important role in treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.

Bridging therapeutic opportunities: a survey by the Italian molecular tumor board workgroup of Alliance Against Cancer.

Background: Molecular tumor boards (MTBs) match molecular alterations with targeted anticancer drugs upon failure of the available therapeutic options. Special and local needs are most likely to emerge through the comparative analysis of MTB networks, but these are rarely reported. This manuscript summarizes the state-of-art of 16 active Italian MTBs, as it emerges from an online survey curated by Alliance Against Cancer (ACC).

Detection of ALK fusion variants by RNA-based NGS and clinical outcome correlation in NSCLC patients treated with ALK-TKI sequences.

Introduction: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusions identify a limited subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, whose therapeutic approach have been radically changed in recent years. However, diagnostic procedures and clinical-radiological responses to specific targeted therapies remain heterogeneous and intrinsically resistant or poor responder patients exist.

Methods: A total of 290 patients with advanced NSCLC defined as ALK+ by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and/or fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) test and treated with single or sequential multiple ALK inhibitors (ALKi) from 2011 to 2017 have been retrospectively retrieved from a multicentre Italian cancer network database.

Autoantibody positivity predicts severity of rheumatic immune-related adverse events to immune-checkpoint inhibitors.

Objective: Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) due to immune checkpoint inhibitors are responsible for a considerable burden of morbidity and mortality. Predictors of severity of rheumatic irAEs have not been identified yet. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis whether the presence of autoantibodies could be associated with a more severe and difficult-to-treat clinical phenotype of rheumatic irAEs.

Angiogenesis inhibition in lung cancer: emerging novel strategies.

Purpose Of Review: In the current review, we will explore the molecular bases that have determined the design of clinical trials exploring the efficacy of antivascular agents in combination with chemotherapy, immune check point inhibitors and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Recent Findings: Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the synergistic effect of antivascular agents with immune checkpoint inhibitors and EGFR-TKIs, despite no molecular marker has been identified yet to select patients.

Summary: Lung cancer remains one of the first causes of cancer-related death.

Abemaciclib in Combination With Pembrolizumab for Stage IV -Mutant or Squamous NSCLC: A Phase 1b Study.

Introduction: Abemaciclib is an oral, selective small-molecule CDK 4 and 6 inhibitor. In preclinical models, abemaciclib synergized with programmed cell death protein-1 blockade to enhance antitumor efficacy. Here, we report the safety and anticancer activity of abemaciclib plus pembrolizumab in two cohorts with NSCLC.