The national COVID-19 vaccination campaign targeting the extremely vulnerable: the Florence Medical Oncology Unit experience in patients with cancer.

Background: International and national oncology societies had released recommendations in favor of COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients. In the context of the national vaccination campaign targeting the so called extremely vulnerable, we aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccines in a cohort of 623 patients.

Methods: Between March 26 and April 04, 2021, the Pfizer and BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA and the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccines were given as a two-dose prime-boost regimen.

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase c.-813C>T predicts for proteinuria in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with bevacizumab-based chemotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) genes and risk of developing bevacizumab-related adverse events in metastatic breast cancer (mBC) patients.

Patients And Methods: mBC patients candidate to receive bevacizumab-based chemotherapy were enrolled in this pharmacogenetic study. eNOS c.

Body Mass Index and Hormone Receptor Status Influence Recurrence Risk in HER2-Positive Early Breast Cancer Patients.

Introduction: A reliable risk stratification on the basis of tumor biology and host factors of HER2-positive (HER2) early breast cancer (eBC) patients is needed. The aim of our study was to assess the prognostic role of body mass index (BMI) and hormone receptor (HR) expression in this setting.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 238 women with stage I to III HER2 breast cancer who completed adjuvant chemotherapy (CHT) and 1 year of treatment with trastuzumab.

Overexpression of TK1 and CDK9 in plasma-derived exosomes is associated with clinical resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer patients.

Purpose: Cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) improve progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) advanced breast cancer. However, a better knowledge of predictive biomarkers of response and resistance to CDK4/6i is needed. Therefore, the present article addresses the role of the mRNA expression of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1), CDK4, 6 and 9 in plasma-derived exosomes and their relevance in the pharmacologic activity of CDK4/6i.

ANKRD44 Gene Silencing: A Putative Role in Trastuzumab Resistance in Her2-Like Breast Cancer.

Trastuzumab is an effective therapeutic treatment for Her2-like breast cancer; despite this most of these tumors develop resistance to therapy due to specific gene mutations or alterations in gene expression. Understanding the mechanisms of resistance to Trastuzumab could be a useful tool in order to identify combinations of drugs that elude resistance and allow a better response for the treated patients. Twelve primary biopsies of Her2+/hormone receptor negative (ER-/PgR-) breast cancer patients were selected based on the specific response to neoadjuvant therapy with Trastuzumab and their whole exome was sequenced leading to the identification of 18 informative gene mutations that discriminate patients selectively based on response to treatment.

Body mass index in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer treated with first-line paclitaxel and bevacizumab.

The evidence emerged from the TOURANDOT trial encourages evaluating the role of anthropometric determinants on treatment outcomes in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer patients treated with bevacizumab-including regimens. We thus analyzed data from a subgroup of these patients from a larger cohort previously assessed for treatment outcomes. Patients were included in the present analysis if body mass index values had been recorded at baseline.

Impact of body mass index on the clinical outcomes of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Overweight and obesity are associated with an increased risk of developing many types of cancer, including breast cancer. Moreover, increased body mass index (BMI) seems to be associated with a worse prognosis in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer. However, little is known about the impact of BMI on the clinical outcomes of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

A retrospective multicentric observational study of trastuzumab emtansine in HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer: a real-world experience.

We addressed trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) efficacy in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer patients treated in real-world practice, and its activity in pertuzumab-pretreated patients. We conducted a retrospective, observational study involving 23 cancer centres, and 250 patients. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan Meier curves and log rank test.

A Real-World Multicentre Retrospective Study of Paclitaxel-Bevacizumab and Maintenance Therapy as First-Line for HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Bevacizumab in combination with taxanes in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients has shown improved progression-free survival (PFS), despite the lack of clear overall survival (OS) benefit. We performed a retrospective analysis to evaluate the impact of paclitaxel-bevacizumab and of maintenance therapy with bevacizumab (BM) and endocrine therapy (ET) in the real-world practice. We identified 314 HER2-negative MBC patients treated in 12 cancer centers.

Germline mutations in DNA repair genes may predict neoadjuvant therapy response in triple negative breast patients.

Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) represent about 15-20% of all breast cancer cases and are characterized by a complex molecular heterogeneity. Some TNBCs exhibit clinical and pathological properties similar to BRCA-mutated tumors, without actually bearing a mutation in BRCA genes. This "BRCAness" phenotype may be explained by germline mutations in other genes involved in DNA repair.

"Triple positive" early breast cancer: an observational multicenter retrospective analysis of outcome.

We recently found that trastuzumab benefit may be lower in a small subset of early breast cancer (BC) patients (pts) with tumors expressing high levels of both hormonal receptors (HRs), i.e. triple positive (TP).

Outcomes of HER2-positive early breast cancer patients in the pre-trastuzumab and trastuzumab eras: a real-world multicenter observational analysis. The RETROHER study.

Addition of trastuzumab to adjuvant chemotherapy has dramatically reduced the risk of recurrence and has become the standard of care for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer patients. Since most data on trastuzumab benefits come from clinical trials, conducted in selected patient populations, we performed a retrospective analysis of HER2-positive early breast cancer patients treated in the "pre-trastuzumab" and "trastuzumab" eras, with the aim to determine patients' outcomes in real-world practice. 925 consecutive HER2-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy in ten Italian oncologic centers were identified.