Publications by authors named "Piras D"

Article Synopsis
  • Five-year survival rates for vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) patients in Italy haven't improved over the past 30 years, which raises concerns about treatment effectiveness.
  • A study of cancer registries found that in 2018, about 6,620 women in Italy were living with VSCC, but only 32% of newly diagnosed patients are considered curable, with many facing high mortality rates even after five years.
  • The results highlight a critical need to revamp the vulvar care approach in Italy to better address the ongoing challenges in managing VSCC.
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Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture has become a consolidated method in the stem cell field, where mesenchymal stromal stem cells (MSCs) can be used to generate in vitro spheroid aggregates called MSC-Spheroids (MSph). MSph is a floating cluster of stem cells similar to those in literature are known as bone marrow-derived "mesenspheres". Even though MSC properties are shared by MSph, depending on the cell type and their tissue source, the morphology and degree of compaction of the MSph can be variable, creating limitations in such a cell model.

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Background: The number and projections of cancer survivors are necessary to meet the healthcare needs of patients, while data on cure prevalence, that is, the percentage of patients who will not die of cancer by time since diagnosis, are lacking.

Materials And Methods: Data from Italian cancer registries (duration of registration ranged from 9 to 40 years, with a median of 22 years) covering 47% of the population were used to calculate the limited-duration prevalence, the complete prevalence in 2018, projections to 2030, and cure prevalence, by cancer type, sex, age, and time since diagnosis.

Results: A total of 3 347 809 people were alive in Italy in 2018 after a cancer diagnosis, corresponding to 5.

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Diarrheagenic (DEC) is the main cause of diarrhea in children under five years old. The virulence of DEC is tightly regulated by environmental signals influenced by the gut microbiota and its metabolites. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are the main metabolic product of anaerobic fermentation in the gut, but their role in DEC diarrhea has not yet been established.

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This study aims to estimate long-term survival, cancer prevalence, and several cure indicators for Italian women with gynecological cancers. Thirty-one cancer registries, representing 47% of the Italian female population, were included. Mixture cure models were used to estimate net survival, cure fraction, time to cure (when 5-year conditional net survival becomes > 95%), cure prevalence (women who will not die of cancer), and already cured (living longer than time to cure).

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People alive many years after breast (BC) or colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnoses are increasing. This paper aimed to estimate the indicators of cancer cure and complete prevalence for Italian patients with BC and CRC by stage and age. A total of 31 Italian Cancer Registries (47% of the population) data until 2017 were included.

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A recent research project using data from a total of 40 cancer registries has provided new epidemiologic insights into the results of efforts for melanoma control in Italy between the 1990s and the last decade. In this article, the authors present a summary and a commentary of their findings. Incidence increased significantly throughout the study period in both sexes.

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Objectives: To describe the procedures to derive complete prevalence and several indicators of cancer cure from population-based cancer registries.

Materials And Methods: Cancer registry data (47% of the Italian population) were used to calculate limited duration prevalence for 62 cancer types by sex and registry. The incidence and survival models, needed to calculate the completeness index () and complete prevalence, were evaluated by likelihood ratio tests and by visual comparison.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates survival trends in vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) in Italy from 1990 to 2015, revealing stagnation in survival rates.
  • Analysis of data from 38 cancer registries indicated a decrease in 1-year and 2-year net survival rates, while 5-year conditional survival showed a slight increase but was not statistically significant.
  • The findings suggest that current treatment and control strategies for VSCC need to be re-evaluated in Italy and worldwide due to the lack of improvement in survival outcomes.
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Purpose: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive clinical tumor, accounting for about 25% of breast cancer (BC) related deaths. Chemotherapy is the only therapeutic option to treat TNBC, hence a detailed understanding of the biology and its categorization is required. To investigate the clinical relevance of BCL11A in TNBC subtype, we focused on gene and protein expression and its mutational status in a large cohort of this molecular subtype.

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Bioimaging supported by nanoparticles requires low cost, highly emissive and photostable systems with low cytotoxicity. Carbon dots (C-dots) offer a possible solution, even if controlling their properties is not always straightforward, not to mention their potentially simple synthesis and the fact that they do not exhibit long-term photostability in general. In the present work, we synthesized two C-dots starting from citric acid and tris (hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane (tris) or arginine methyl ester dihydrochloride.

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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is considered a major global health problem with high socio-economic costs: the risk of CKD in individuals with an affected first degree relative has been found to be three times higher than in the general population. Genetic factors are known to be involved in CKD pathogenesis, both due to the possible presence of monogenic pathologies as causes of CKD, and to the role of numerous gene variants in determining susceptibility to the development of CKD. The genetic study of CKD patients can represent a useful tool in the hands of the clinician; not only in the diagnostic and prognostic field, but potentially also in guiding therapeutic choices and in designing clinical trials.

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HER2+ breast cancer (BC) is an aggressive subtype representing a genetically and biologically heterogeneous group of tumors resulting in variable prognosis and treatment response to HER2-targeted therapies according to estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression. The relationship with androgen receptors (AR), a member of the steroid hormone's family, is unwell known in BC. The present study aims to evaluate the prognostic impact of AR expression in HER2+ BC subtypes.

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In vitro oocyte maturation (IVM) is a well-established technique. Despite the high IVM rates obtained in most mammalian species, the developmental competence of IVM oocytes is suboptimal. The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of a liquid marble microbioreactor (LM) as a 3D culture system to mature in vitro prepubertal ovine oocytes, as models of oocytes with intrinsic low competence.

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Background: The number of patients living after a cancer diagnosis is increasing, especially after thyroid cancer (TC). This study aims at evaluating both the risk of a second primary cancer (SPC) in TC patients and the risk of TC as a SPC.

Methods: We analyzed two population-based cohorts of individuals with TC or other neoplasms diagnosed between 1998 and 2012, in 28 Italian areas covered by population-based cancer registries.

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Background: Epidemics of chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) are occurring on the Pacific coast of Central America, in Sri Lankan and Indian agricultural communities, and in other hotspots around the world. CKDu primarily affects male agricultural workers, and traditional risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension are not involved in the pathogenesis. Although a causal factor has not yet been identified, culprits include repeated volume depletion-induced kidney injury, as well as exposure to agrichemicals, heavy metals and nephrotoxins contained in drugs, beverages, and traditional medications.

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Cells have a remarkable ability to self-organize and rearrange in functional organoids, this process was greatly boosted by the recent advances in 3D culture technologies and materials. Presently, this approach can be applied to model human organ development and function "in a dish" and can be used to predict drug response in a patient specific fashion.Here we describe a protocol that allows for the derivation of functional cardiac mini organoids consisting of cocultured cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblast.

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In Oceania, North America and north-western Europe, after decades of increase, cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) rates began to stabilise or decline before 2000. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the reversal of the incidence trend is extending to southern Europe. To obtain a formal confirmation, this nationwide study from Italy investigated the incidence trends by birth cohort.

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Objectives: Measurement tools of health-related quality of life (HRQL) that are specific for the underlying disorder are inevitably needed to assess HRQL changes following specific treatment strategies. The aim of the current study was to develop a questionnaire assessing HRQL in patients with unilateral diaphragmatic paresis.

Methods: Firstly, topics of health impairments covering physical, psychological, social and functional aspects were predefined by a physician expert panel to ensure face validity.

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Ultrasound atomic force microscopy (AFM) has received considerable interest due to its subsurface imaging capabilities, particularly for nanostructure imaging. The local contact stiffness variation due to the presence of a subsurface feature is the origin of the imaging contrast. Several research studies have demonstrated subsurface imaging capabilities with promising resolution.

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Article Synopsis
  • * One of the challenges in continuous processing is ensuring that quality standards are met despite variations during production, making the measurement of key performance indicators crucial.
  • * This study utilizes a tomographic ultrasonic velocity meter to analyze the rheological properties of a non-Newtonian fluid, employing a data-driven methodology that combines principal component analysis and feedforward neural networks for enhanced decision-making in the process.
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We present the Twente Photoacoustic Mammoscope 2, a photoacoustic breast imaging system employing a tomographic configuration. It images one breast pendant inside an imaging tank filled with water while a woman lies prone on a bed. A dual-head laser (755 and 1064 nm) illuminates the breast with one beam directed at the nipple and nine beams directed at the sides.

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