Given the increasing complexity of cancer care, multidisciplinary tumor boards have become essential in daily clinical oncology practice. The Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) initiative developed an innovative telementoring model using a "hub and spoke" design consisting of a team of experts (hub) that offers a full service to multiple participants (the spokes) during regularly scheduled sessions discussing patients' clinical cases. The Alexander Fleming Cancer Institute in Buenos Aires was the first hub in Latin America to implement Project ECHO for gastrointestinal tumors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 68-year-old man, without a family history of cancer, was treated for primary cutaneous melanoma of the scalp. Two years later, a right lateral cervical lymph recurrence was observed and he was treated with lymphadenectomy and adjuvant nivolumab for 1 year. Four years from the initial melanoma diagnosis, a computer tomography scan showed a solid nodular lesion of 26 × 40 × 75 mm inside the previously known inguinoscrotal hernia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCase Report: A 4-month old girl affected by gastric duplication discovered as a palpable abdominal mass displacing the spleen and left kidney. During laparotomy, a yellowish secretion is aspirated and the gastric duplication is excised together with the common muscular Wall of the greater curvature of the stomach. Also excised, a tubular structure starting from the inferior pole of the malformation, and communicating with it, passing superior to the head of the pancreas and the second portion of the duodenum, followed by a posterior course before inserting into the right cruz of the diaphragm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe clinical outcome of colorectal cancer (CRC) is associated with the immune response; thus, these tumors could be responsive to different immune therapy approaches. Natural killer (NK) cells are key antitumor primary effectors that can eliminate CRC cells without prior immunization. We previously determined that NK cells from the local tumor environment of CRC tumors display a profoundly altered phenotype compared with circulating NK cells from healthy donors (HD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The non-surgical management in a selected group of rectal cancer patients has shown promising results with adequate follow up.
Aims: describing the results of the non-surgical management in patients with complete clinical response, with a close follow up.
Methods: Between 2006 and 2015, patients with rectal cancer, stages I-III, without metastasis, treated with neoadjuvant CRT/CT, who had clinical complete response were included.
Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) include a spectrum of malignancies arising from neuroendocrine cells throughout the body. The objective of this clinical investigation of retrospectively and prospectively collected data was to describe the prevalence, demographic data, clinical symptoms and methods of diagnosis of NET and the treatment and long-term follow-up of patients with NET. Data were provided by the participating centers and assessed for consistency by internal reviewers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite NK cells being originally identified because of their ability to kill tumor cells in vitro, only limited information is available on NK cells infiltration of malignant tumors, especially in humans. NK cells infiltrating human colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) were analyzed to identify their potential protective role in an antitumor immune response. The expression and function of relevant molecules were analyzed from different sources, comparing tumor-associated NK cells (TANKs) with autologous peripheral blood NK cells (PB-NKs) from CRC patients-the latter in comparison with PB-NKs from normal donors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetallothioneins are a family of small, cysteine-rich proteins with many functions. Immunohistochemical evaluation of all metallothionein 1 + 2 isoforms in colorectal tumors has demonstrated an important down-regulation compared with normal tissue, although its prognostic significance is unclear. Moreover, the contribution of individual isoforms to overall metallothionein down-regulation is not known.
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