Fatigue trajectories by wearable remote monitoring of breast cancer patients during radiotherapy.

The aim of this pilot study was to assess the compliance of breast cancer (BC) patients with fitness tracker (FT) monitoring program during radiotherapy (RT) and to characterize radiation-induced fatigue (RIF) status through objective evaluation using FT-collected parameters. Thirty-six BC patients were invited to wear FT during their RT course for continuous monitoring of heart rate (HR) and step counts (STP). RIF assessment was performed weekly, according to CTCAE v5.

The role of MRI in radiotherapy planning: a narrative review "from head to toe".

Over the last few years, radiation therapy (RT) techniques have evolved very rapidly, with the aim of conforming high-dose volume tightly to a target. Although to date CT is still considered the imaging modality for target delineation, it has some known limited capabilities in properly identifying pathologic processes occurring, for instance, in soft tissues. This limitation, along with other advantages such as dose reduction, can be overcome using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is increasingly being recognized as a useful tool in RT clinical practice.

Neoadjuvant Versus Adjuvant Systemic Therapy in Breast Cancer: A Matched Case-control Study.

Background/aim: Neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAT) in breast cancer can make tumors resectable or reduce the extent of surgery needed for locally advanced cancers. It can also better prevent distant relapse and possibly modulate drug therapy by adjusting adjuvant therapy (AD) based on the response to NAT, either by escalating or de-escalating the treatment. However, clear evidence of improved outcomes is currently missing.

Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia After Breast Radiation Therapy.

Presented here is a case report of a 77-year-old woman affected by rheumatoid arthritis who underwent breast-conserving surgery followed by radiation therapy (RT) for left-breast cancer and developed bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) after RT and during a COVID-19 vaccination campaign. BOOP incidence is an uncommon morbidity after breast RT (1.2%-2.

Stereotactic Radiation Therapy for Brain Metastases: Factors Affecting Outcomes and Radiation Necrosis.

Stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) is a proven effective treatment for brain metastases (BM); however, symptomatic radiation necrosis (RN) is a late effect that may impact on patient's quality of life. The aim of our study was to retrospectively evaluate survival outcomes and characterize the occurrence of RN in a cohort of BM patients treated with ablative SRT at Federico II University Hospital. Clinical and dosimetric factors of 87 patients bearing a total of 220 BMs treated with SRT from 2016 to 2022 were analyzed.

Clinical activity of regorafenib in elderly patients with recurrent glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most frequent and aggressive primary tumors in the central nervous system, representing >60% of all brain tumors in adults. Despite treatment, prognosis remains poor with most if not all patients experiencing disease recurrence and a 2-year survival rate of 27%. At present, no confirmed standard treatment exists for recurrent glioblastoma.

Potential benefits of using radioactive ion beams for range margin reduction in carbon ion therapy.

Sharp dose gradients and high biological effectiveness make ions such as C an ideal tool to treat deep-seated tumors, however, at the same time, sensitive to errors in the range prediction. Tumor safety margins mitigate these uncertainties, but during the irradiation they lead to unavoidable damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. To fully exploit the Bragg peak benefits, a large effort is put into establishing precise range verification methods.

Correction to: HBV molecular epidemiology and clinical condition of immigrants living in Italy.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The name of the author Mara Caroprese was rendered wrongly. The correct name is shown above.

Technological evolution of radiation treatment: Implications for clinical applications.

The contemporary approach to the management of a cancer patient requires an "ab initio" involvement of different medical domains in order to correctly design an individual patient's pathway toward cure. With new therapeutic tools in every medical field developing faster than ever before the patient care outcomes can be achieved if all surgical, drug, and radiation options are considered in the design of the appropriate therapeutic strategy for a given patient. Radiation therapy (RT) is a clinical discipline in which experts from different fields continuously interact in order to manage the multistep process of the radiation treatment.

Hepatitis C late relapse in patients with directly acting antiviral-related sustained virological response at week 12.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify, among the patients with failure to DAA regimen, those with a late relapse (after the achievement of a sustained virological response at week 12) and to characterize the clinical, epidemiological and virological features of these patients.

Material And Methods: A total of 129 HCV patients with non-response to an IFN-free regimen were enrolled. Sanger sequencing of NS3, NS5A and NS5B was performed at failure by home-made protocols.

Low prevalence of HTLV1/2 infection in a population of immigrants living in southern Italy.

Aims: To assess the prevalence of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 infections in a cohort of immigrants living in southern Italy.

Findings: We screened for antibody to HTLV-1/2 infection 1,498 consecutive immigrants born in endemic areas (sub-Saharan Africa or southern-Asia) by a commercial chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. If confirmed in a Western blot assay, which differentiates anti-HTLV-1 from anti-HTLV-2, the positive sera were tested for specific HTLV RNA by a home-made PCR.

HCV genotype-3h, a difficult-to-diagnose sub-genotype in the DAA era.

Background: No data are available on the clinical presentation and virological pattern in the case of failure of interferon (IFN)-free regimens in patients with genotype-3h. In this paper authors identified the virological and clinical characteristics of patients with genotype-3h treated with suboptimal or not indicated IFN-free regimens for the misclassification of HCV genotype.

Methods: A total of 87 consecutive patients with failure to an IFN-free regimen were re-tested for HCV genotype by HCV NS5B sequencing; the 26 patients identified as harbouring HCV-3 were enrolled.

Virological patterns of HCV patients with failure to interferon-free regimens.

The study characterized the virological patterns and the resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) in patients with failure to IFN-free regimens enrolled in the real-life setting. All 87 consecutive HCV patients with failed IFN-free regimens, observed at the laboratory of the University of Campania, were enrolled. All patients had been treated with DAA regimens according to the HCV genotype, international guidelines, and local availability.