Publications by authors named "Luca Cottafavi"

Background: Oncologists are often concerned that talking about death with patients may hinder their relationship. However, the views of death held by patients have not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to describe the perception of death among patients with advanced cancer receiving early palliative care (EPC) and their caregivers.

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Background: Oncologists' fear of taking away hope from patients when proposing early palliative care (EPC) is a barrier to the implementation of this model. This study explores hope perceptions among bereaved caregivers of onco-hematologic patients who received EPC.

Materials And Methods: Open-ended questionnaires were administered to 36 primary caregivers of patients who received EPC (26 solid and 10 hematologic cancer patients; mean age: 51.

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Background: Little is known about the underlying mechanisms through which early palliative care (EPC) improves multiple outcomes in patients with cancer and their caregivers. The aim of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze patients' and caregivers' thoughts and emotional and cognitive perceptions about the disease prior to and during the EPC intervention, and in the end of life, following the exposure to EPC.

Materials And Methods: Seventy-seven patients with advanced cancer and 48 caregivers from two cancer centers participated in semistructured interviews.

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Previous research involving epithelial ovarian cancer patients showed that, compared to germline (gBRCA) mutations, somatic (sBRCA) mutations present a similar positive impact with regard to overall survival (OS) and platinum and PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase) inhibitor sensitivity. Nevertheless, molecular testing in these studies did not include copy number variation (CNV) analyses of genes. The aim of this study was to explore the prognostic and predictive role of sBRCA mutations as compared to gBRCA mutations in patients who were also tested for CNVs.

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