Publications by authors named "Maria Ida Abbate"

According to a modern view, cancer no longer follows a purely mechanistic model. Rather, a tumor is conceived as a more complex structure, composed of cancer cells, the activities of which may interact and reshape the so-called tumor microenvironment (TME), leading to preservation of specific tumoral niches and promoting the survival of tumoral stem cells. : Therapeutic strategies must deal with this unique cancer architecture in the near future by widening their range of activities outside the cancer cells and rewiring a TME to ensure it is hostile to cancer growth.

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Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a disease with a poor prognosis despite the advances in therapies. NSCLC with actionable oncogenic alterations represent a subgroup of diseases for which tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have shown relevant and robust impact on prognosis, both in early and advanced stages. While the introduction of powerful TKIs increases the ratio of potentially curable patients, the disease does develop resistance over time through either secondary mutations or bypass activating tracks.

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Purpose Of Review: The aim of this review is to focus on the recent advances in the molecular knowledge of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and potential promising new treatment strategies, like targeting the DNA damage pathway, epigenetics, angiogenesis, and oncogenic drivers.

Recent Findings: In the last few years, the addition of immunotherapy to chemotherapy has led to significant improvements in clinical outcomes in this complex neoplasia. Nevertheless, the prognosis remains dismal.

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Article Synopsis
  • Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a fast-growing and challenging type of lung cancer with a high chance of coming back after treatment and few effective therapies available.
  • *The introduction of chemotherapy combined with immune-checkpoint inhibitors marks a potential breakthrough, but there’s a challenge due to the absence of predictive biomarkers that can identify which patients will benefit most.
  • *Delta-like canonical Notch ligand 3 (DLL3) is often found in high levels in SCLC, making it a target for new treatments; the article reviews existing DLL3 inhibitors and discusses the potential of new compounds based on updated molecular classifications of SCLC.
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Aim: We investigated outcomes in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and peritoneal involvement.

Patients & Methods: NSCLC patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) were included. We evaluated mOS1 (overall survival [OS] from NSCLC diagnosis) and mOS2 (OS from diagnosis of PC).

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We herein report an uncommon association of intimately admixed atypical carcinoid (AC) and large cell neuroendocrine (NE) carcinoma (LCNEC) of the thymus, occurring in two 20- and 39-year-old Caucasian males. Both tumors were treated by maximal thymectomy. The younger patient presented with a synchronous lesion and died of disease after 9 months, while the other patient was associated with a recurrent ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone Cushing's syndrome and is alive with disease at the 2-year follow-up.

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Introduction: In spite of the progress in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the majority of patients with advanced disease still receive chemotherapy. Gemcitabine alone or combined with a platinum compound is a valid option. Thrombocytosis is a recognized prognostic factor in lung cancer and an adverse event that may occur during gemcitabine infusion.

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Although heart metastases are uncommon and generally a sign of disseminated disease, they are up to 40 times more frequent than primary cancers of the heart, and typically arise from melanoma or primary mediastinal cancer, but also from lymphoma, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, and leukemia. They are usually asymptomatic and found only at autopsy. Symptomatic patients generally die within a few weeks of diagnosis and usual treatments are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both.

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