Publications by authors named "Linda Cerbone"

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common types of urogenital cancer. The introduction of immune-based combinations, including dual immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) or ICI plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), has radically changed the treatment landscape for metastatic RCC, showing varying efficacy across different prognostic groups based on the International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium (IMDC) criteria.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective multicenter study, part of the ARON-1 project, aimed to evaluate the outcomes of favorable-risk metastatic RCC patients treated with immune-based combinations or sunitinib.

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  • The study evaluates the real-world effectiveness of the Pembrolizumab/Axitinib combination therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in Italy, involving 170 patients treated between December 2020 and September 2023.
  • Most participants had clear-cell histology (83%), and the treatment showed a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 19.2 months, with 84.6% achieving disease control.
  • The study highlights key prognostic factors, including age and histology, that affect overall survival (OS) and establishes the combination's promise in clinical settings.
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  • - Enfortumab vedotin (EV) is effective for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma who have previously received platinum chemotherapy and immune therapy, despite lacking research on those treated with avelumab maintenance.
  • - A study of 182 patients showed a median overall survival of 12.7 months and a progression-free survival of 7.9 months, with 39% achieving a positive response to EV after avelumab treatment.
  • - The study confirms EV's effectiveness, suggesting it can be a viable option for patients previously treated with avelumab, with manageable side effects like grade ≥ 3 neuropathy and skin rash occurring in a minority of cases.
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  • - Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) with sarcomatoid features (sRCC) is aggressive and has a poor prognosis; this study aimed to investigate its clinical features and outcomes compared to non-sarcomatoid patients.
  • - The study analyzed data from 1362 mRCC patients, finding that the median overall survival for sRCC patients was 26.8 months, significantly lower than the 35.3 months for non-sRCC patients.
  • - Both first-line treatment strategies, immunotherapy combined with immunotherapy (IO + IO) and immunotherapy with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (IO + TKI), showed similar survival outcomes, confirming that
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Background: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have significantly improved metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) prognosis, although their efficacy in patients with bone metastases (BMs) remains poorly understood. We investigated the prognostic role of natremia in pretreated RCC patients with BMs receiving immunotherapy.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective multicenter study included RCC patients with BMs receiving nivolumab as second-line therapy or beyond.

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Background: Neutrophil-to-eosinophil ratio (NER) has been described to be associated with outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in several tumor types, but less is known about its role of in the response to avelumab in advanced urothelial cancer (aUC). Thus, we reported outcomes by NER of aUC patients treated with avelumab as maintenance after initial response to platinum-based chemotherapy and enrolled in the Maintenance with AVeLumAb ([MALVA] in advanced urothelial neoplasms in response to first-line chemotherapy: an observational retrospective study) study (Meet-URO 25).

Patients And Methods: Median NER at baseline and after 3 cycles of avelumab were calculated.

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Importance: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have broadened the metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) therapeutic scenario. The association of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) with response and survival in patients treated with ICIs is still controversial.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of PD-L1 with response rate and overall survival among patients with mUC treated with ICIs.

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The introduction of first-line combinations had improved the outcomes for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) compared to sunitinib. However, some patients either have inherent resistance or develop resistance as a result of the treatment. Depending on the kind of therapy employed, many factors underlie resistance to systemic therapy.

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Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are increasingly used as second-line treatments for urothelial cancer (UC), only a small proportion of patients respond. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of response to ICIs is critical to improve clinical outcomes for UC patients. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is recognized as a key player in tumor progression and the response to certain anti-cancer treatments.

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Unlabelled: Central studies carried out on vaccines against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV2) excluded patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy and those diagnosed with an immunosuppressive condition. Moreover, there are no data on vaccine efficacy regarding older patients with cancer.

Objectives: The primary objective was to evaluate the seroprevalence of the SARS-CoV2 IgG in older patients (aged ≥80 years) diagnosed with solid or hematological malignancies, one month after administering the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.

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Locoregional treatment with radical intent should be considered during therapy with targeted agents in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in order to achieve a complete response, especially in the setting of an oligo-progression in one or more metastatic sites. We retrospectively enrolled 55 patients who experienced a disease oligo-progression after at least 6 months from the beginning of first-line therapy in one or more metastatic sites radically treated with locoregional treatments. Post-first-oligo-progression overall survival (PFOPOS) and post-first-oligo-progression free survival (PFOPFS) were evaluated.

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Background: Little is known about the outcomes of robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) compared to open radical cystectomy (ORC) combined with perioperative chemotherapy for muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer (UBC).

Objective: To evaluate surgical and oncological outcomes for RARC and ORC in multimodal treatment.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Data from 28 centres were collected for cystectomies performed between January 2000 and July 2013.

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Background: The available prognostic models for overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) have been derived from clinical trial populations of cisplatin-treated patients.

Objective: To develop a new model based on real-world patients.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Individual patient-level data from 29 centers were collected, including metastatic UC and first-line cisplatin- or carboplatin-based chemotherapy administered between January 2006 and January 2011.

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In the last 25 years, there has been an improved understanding of the pathogenesis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (BC). Development of new treatment strategies has followed. We have progressed from the awareness of the efficacy of platinum compounds, especially cisplatin, as single agents to the development of effective drug combinations with greater attention in improving safety profiles while impacting on survival.

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Background/objective: Lapatinib is a potent HER1 and HER2 inhibitor. Gemcitabine-cisplatin (GC) is a standard chemotherapy regimen for advanced/metastatic bladder cancer. This phase I study examined the safety of lapatinib in combination with GC in patients with bladder cancer.

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Background: With the advent of targeted therapies, many treatment options in the first-line setting of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mccRCC) have emerged. Guidelines and randomized trial reports usually do not elucidate the decision criteria for the different treatment options. In order to extract the decision criteria for the optimal therapy for patients, we performed an analysis of treatment algorithms from experts in the field.

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Elevation in liver transaminases is common in patients treated with the marine antitumor agent trabectedin. However, the impact of trabectedin-related transaminase elevations on treatment outcomes is unclear. This retrospective study investigated the correlation between liver tests abnormalities and treatment outcomes in patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STS) treated with trabectedin 1.

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We aimed to assess the prognostic role of pretreatment neutrophilia, lymphocytopenia, and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients treated with vascular endothelial growth factor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (VEGFR-TKIs) for late relapsing (>5 years) metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Data were collected from 13 Italian centers involved in the treatment of metastatic RCC. Late relapse was defined as >5 years after initial radical nephrectomy.

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Background: The aim of this study was to compare survival of resected and unresected patients in a large cohort of patients with metastases to the pancreas from renal cell carcinoma (PM-RCC).

Methods: Data from 16 Italian centers involved in the treatment of metastatic RCC were retrospectively collected. The Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test methods were used to evaluate overall survival (OS).

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Background: Second-line treatment options for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC) are limited. Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) is dysregulated in UC by activating mutations or protein overexpression in non-mutant tumours. In this study, the efficacy, pharmacodynamics and safety of dovitinib-a broad-targeted inhibitor of tyrosine kinases, including FGFR3-were evaluated in patients with previously treated advanced UC with and without FGFR3 mutations.

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Purpose: Several prognostic models have been proposed for metastatic renal cell carcinoma but none has been validated in patients who receive third line targeted agents. We evaluated prognostic factors in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who received a third line targeted agent.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data on 2,065 patients with clear cell metastatic renal cell carcinoma who were treated with targeted therapy at a total of 23 centers in Italy.

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Purpose: Late recurrence of renal cell carcinoma is not a rare event. In this retrospective study we investigate the clinicopathological features and the outcome of patients treated with sorafenib, sunitinib and pazopanib for late relapsing renal cell carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: Data were collected from 21 Italian centers involved in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

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