Publications by authors named "Musacchio L"

Article Synopsis
  • Cervical cancer still has a poor prognosis despite treatment advances, especially for patients progressing after chemotherapy and immunotherapy, where traditional options are limited.
  • Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), like tisotumab vedotin, show promise for recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer, demonstrating improved response rates and progression-free survival in trials.
  • Key unresolved issues include the optimal timing for ADC use, combination therapy strategies to combat resistance, and managing specific toxicities, with a future focus on biomarker-driven patient selection to enhance treatment effectiveness and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Understanding ovarian involvement incidence and risk factors in women with endometrial cancer may inform the decision of ovary preservation.

Methods: Our retrospective study included all consecutive fully surgically staged patients with endometrial cancer who underwent primary surgery between January 2005 and November 2021, assessing the incidence of ovarian metastasis, its role as a prognostic factor for recurrence and death, and evaluated predictors of adnexal involvement.

Results: Women with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2009 IIIA endometrial cancer comprised 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The advent of immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has revolutionized the management of mismatch repair deficient (MMR-d)/microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) endometrial cancer (EC). Initially investigated as monotherapy in phase I-II clinical trials for recurrent disease, immunotherapy demonstrated remarkable activity, yielding overall response rates (ORR) ranging from 27% to 58%. Based on these promising findings, phase III trials have explored the integration of immunotherapy into first-line treatment regimens for advanced/recurrent EC in combination with chemotherapy or other agents such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), resulting in improved ORR, progression-free survival, and overall survival compared to the standard chemotherapy regimen of paclitaxel and carboplatin.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The rise of precision medicine brings more targeted cancer treatments and advanced techniques for analyzing molecular data, but understanding this data can be complex.
  • Molecular tumor boards, which include various healthcare professionals, help interpret these data and provide valuable insights for doctors while also promoting knowledge sharing and research.
  • The analysis discusses how molecular tumor boards operate, the professionals involved, the types of data used, and highlights successful examples from current multi-institutional, disease-specific initiatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Various studies have investigated how combining immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) with standard chemotherapy affects patients with advanced endometrial cancer, focusing on DNA mismatch repair (dMMR vs pMMR) and the type of immunotherapy used (anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1).
  • The main goal was to determine if adding ICIs to typical platinum-based chemotherapy would lead to better progression-free survival (PFS) outcomes in patients overall and based on their DNA mismatch repair status.
  • Results indicated a significant improvement in PFS for patients receiving ICIs with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone, especially for those with the dMMR status, highlighting the potential benefits of immunotherapy in this context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • PARP inhibitors, specifically niraparib, are used in maintenance therapy for platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, regardless of BRCA mutation status.
  • A study evaluated the real-world efficacy and safety of niraparib in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer, collecting clinical data from those who received the treatment.
  • Results showed a median progression-free survival of 9.1 months for BRCA wild-type patients and 10.3 months for BRCA mutated patients, indicating that niraparib is effective and well tolerated in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in women worldwide. It is associated with a high death rate, despite the fact that it is a nearly 100% preventable disease because of very effective primary and secondary preventive strategies. Advanced and recurrent disease is uncurable with a high relapse risk and the second-line therapies are limited with modest response rates and short durability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The aim of the present analysis was to explore the efficacy of Bevacizumab (Bev) on survival outcome in advanced low grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC) both in first line and in recurrent setting.

Methods: In retrospective observational multicenter study, we described the outcome of LGSOC patients enrolled in the MITO 22 study and treated with chemotherapy (CT) with or without Bev. Patients receiving Bev in first-line or in recurrence were considered and compared with patients receiving CT alone (stage III and IV in first line; platinum based-CT in second line).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Immune checkpoint blockers (ICB) act by reverting the immunosuppressive phenotype of cancer cells, thus allowing host immune system to generate an immune response to the tumor. One of the key mechanisms targeted by ICB is the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, which lies onto the interaction between the programmed-cell death protein 1 and its ligand, overexpressed in several tumor types. This interaction leads to the inhibition of T-cell proliferation and their apoptosis and exhaustion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Correlation between 2 () pathogenic variants and the response to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) has been recognized in patients with ovarian cancer. Moreover, data on the clinical implications of variants of unknown significance are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in survival outcomes in patients with variants of unknown significance, mutated, and wild type relapsed ovarian cancer treated with PARPi.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological disease in developed countries. Although it is considered an indolent disease, advanced and recurrent endometrial carcinomas are characterized by poor prognosis. In the metastatic setting, after the failure of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, patients have limited therapeutic options.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patients with primary metastatic/recurrent endometrial cancer have poor prognosis and available therapeutic options are limited. Current treatment is mainly based on platinum-based chemotherapy. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for the combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib for endometrial cancer patients without microsatellite instability (MSS) progressing on a previous line of therapy while European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the combination for all comers patients failing previous platinum treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: This open-label phase II clinical trial evaluated the antitumor activity and safety of trabectedin in patients with advanced ovarian (OC) or uterine carcinosarcomas (UC).

Methods: Eligible patients were adults (≥18 years) with histologically proven recurrent OC/UC not amenable to surgery or radiotherapy who received up to two prior chemotherapy lines. Trabectedin 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Endometrial cancer can be characterized by high instability of microsatellites (MSI-H), a biomarker indicative of sensibility to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The results of the KEYNOTE-158 trial led to the approval of pembrolizumab - a monoclonal, humanized IgG4 kappa anti-PD-1 antibody able to prevent T-cell PD-1/tumor cell PD-L1/2 interaction, thus restoring T-cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity - in MSI-H endometrial cancer relapsing after at least one line of chemotherapy (CT).

Areas Covered: Ongoing trials, such as KEYNOTE-B21/ENGOT-en11, KEYNOTE-C93/ENGOT-en15/GOG-3064, and NRG/GY018, aim to move this option earlier in the algorithm, whether adjuvant or first-line, even CT-free.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Low grade serous carcinoma of the ovary and peritoneum (LGSC) is characterized by low response rates to chemotherapy and by MAPK pathway alterations. Phase II/III clinical trials tested different MEK inhibitors (MEKis) in this complex malignancy, with heterogenous results. Purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to define activity and efficacy of these agents and explore differences in clinical outcomes related to RAS/RAF mutational status.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological cancer in developed countries. The ESGO/ESTRO/ESP updated evidence-based guidelines in 2020, introducing molecular classification to guide EC treatment. The genomic-based approach has identified four prognostic subgroups of EC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Low-grade serous ovarian and peritoneal cancer (LGSC) is a rare disease and few data on the clinical and genomic landscape have been published.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed with LGSC between 1996 and 2019 was conducted in MITO centers. Objective Response Rate (ORR) to treatments, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have completely reshaped the treatment of many malignancies, with remarkable improvements in survival outcomes. In ovarian cancer (OC), however, this emerging class of drugs has not yet found a favorable use due to results from phase I and II studies, which have not suggested a substantial antitumoral activity of these agents when administered as monotherapy. Robust preclinical data seem to suggest that the combination ICIs with poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPis) may result in a synergistic activity; furthermore, data from phase II clinical studies, evaluating this combination, have shown encouraging outcomes especially for those OC patients not suitable for platinum retreatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

PolyADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPis) represent the first clinically approved drugs able to provoke "synthetic lethality" in patients with homologous recombination-deficient (HRD) tumors. Four PARPis have just received approval for the treatment of several types of cancer. Besides, another three additional PARPis underlying the same mechanism of action are currently under investigation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors have transformed the management landscape for patients with ovarian cancer, demonstrating remarkable improvements in progression-free survival and overall survival. Unfortunately, most relapses are due to an acquired mechanism of resistance to these agents. We hypothesize that secondary cytoreductive surgery, removing resistant clones, might help to overcome the development of resistance to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors, prolonging their therapeutic effect.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lurbinectedin is an antitumor agent belonging to the natural marine-based tetrahydroisoquinoline family which has shown very promising clinical activity with a favorable safety profile in many types of cancer. Preclinical evidence showed that lurbinectedin inhibits active transcription and binds to GC-rich sequences, leading to irreversible degradation of RNA polymerase II and generation of single- and double-strand DNA breaks and, as a consequence, apoptosis of tumor cells. In addition, lurbinectedin has demonstrated modulation of the tumor microenvironment and activity against cancer cells harboring homologous recombination DNA repair deficiency.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecological malignancy and very little is known about the underlying tumorigenesis mechanisms. For other tumors, like colorectal cancer, a relationship between several opportunistic pathogens and cancer development and progression has been proven. Recent researches also underline a possible correlation between gut microbiota dysbiosis and cancer treatment efficacy and adverse effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

After more than 30 years of a one-size-fits-all approach in the management of advanced ovarian cancer, in 2018 the SOLO1 trial results have introduced a new era of personalized medicine. A deeper knowledge of ovarian cancer biology and the development of new drugs targeting specific molecular pathways have led to biomarker-driven phase 3 trials with practice changing results. Thereafter, platinum-based combinations are no longer the only therapeutic options available in first line setting and poly-ADP ribose polymerase inhibitors maintenance therapy has become the mainstay in patients with tumor harboring a homologous recombination defect.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients have a poor prognosis and few treatment options are available. Preclinical and clinical data demonstrated that the combination of poly-ADP ribose polymerase inhibitors with immune checkpoint inhibitors could have a synergistic antitumor activity in this setting of patients.

Primary Objective: The primary objective is to assess the efficacy of niraparib plus dostarlimab compared with chemotherapy in recurrent ovarian cancer patients not suitable for platinum treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF