Intraperitoneal pelvic leiomyoma with atypical location in an old man: The role for MRI in the differential diagnosis.

Primary pelvic peritoneal masses, not arising from major organs, are uncommon in adults. Leiomyomas are a group of benign smooth muscle tumors, most commonly found in the uterus in premenopausal women (70-80%). Extra-uterine locations are very rare and more frequent in women.

Effects of chronic light cycle disruption during adolescence on circadian clock, neuronal activity rhythms, and behavior in mice.

The advent of artificial lighting, particularly during the evening and night, has significantly altered the predictable daily light and dark cycles in recent times. Altered light environments disrupt the biological clock and negatively impact mood and cognition. Although adolescents commonly experience chronic changes in light/dark cycles, our understanding of how the adolescents' brain adapts to altered light environments remains limited.

The importance of the multidisciplinary team in the decision-making process of patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Background And Objectives: Recent literature suggests that rates of breast conservation surgery (BCS) are lower than expected in patients submitted to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. The aim of this study was to underscore the role of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) in the decision-making process of patients who underwent breast surgery after NAC.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on patients with breast cancer treated according to an algorithm developed at the Breast Unit of Northern Sardinia between January 2019 and May 2023.

Combination of mutations in genes controlling DNA repair and high mutational load plays a prognostic role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC): a retrospective real-life study in Sardinian population.

Background: Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDCA) carrying impaired mismatch repair mechanisms seem to have an outcome advantage under treatment with conventional chemotherapy, whereas the role for the tumor mutation burden on prognosis is controversial. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic role of the mutated genes involved in genome damage repair in a real-life series of PDAC patients in a hospital-based manner from the main Institution deputed to surgically treat such a disease in North Sardinia.

Methods: A cohort of fifty-five consecutive PDAC patients with potentially resectable/border line resectable PDAC (stage IIB-III) or oligometastatic disease (stage IV) and tumor tissue availability underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based analysis using a panel containing driver oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes as well as genes controlling DNA repair mechanisms.

Toxic Metal and Essential Element Concentrations in the Blood and Tissues of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Patients.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive lethal neoplasm, and it has an average 5-year survival rate of less than 10%. Although the factors that influence PDAC development remain unclear, exposure to toxic metals or the imbalance in essential elements may have a role in PDAC-associated metabolic pathways.

Methods: This study determined the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se and Zn in whole blood, cancer and non-cancer tissues of patients affected by PDAC, and compared them with levels in healthy controls using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Do some patients receive unnecessary parenteral nutrition after pancreatoduodenectomy? Results from an international multicentre study.

Backgrounds/aims: After pancreatoduodenectomy (PD), an early oral diet is recommended; however, the postoperative nutritional management of PD patients is known to be highly variable, with some centers still routinely providing parenteral nutrition (PN). Some patients who receive PN experience clinically significant complications, underscoring its judicious use. Using a large cohort, this study aimed to determine the proportion of PD patients who received postoperative nutritional support (NS), describe the nature of this support, and investigate whether receiving PN correlated with adverse perioperative outcomes.

Postoperative complications after pancreatoduodenectomy for malignancy: results from the Recurrence After Whipple's (RAW) study.

Background: Pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is associated with significant postoperative morbidity. Surgeons should have a sound understanding of the potential complications for consenting and benchmarking purposes. Furthermore, preoperative identification of high-risk patients can guide patient selection and potentially allow for targeted prehabilitation and/or individualized treatment regimens.

Does an extensive diagnostic workup for upfront resectable pancreatic cancer result in a delay which affects survival? Results from an international multicentre study.

Backgrounds/aims: Pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is recommended in fit patients with a carcinoma (PDAC) of the pancreatic head, and a delayed resection may affect survival. This study aimed to correlate the time from staging to PD with long-term survival, and study the impact of preoperative investigations (if any) on the timing of surgery.

Methods: Data were extracted from the Recurrence After Whipple's (RAW) study, a multicentre retrospective study of PD outcomes.

Rising age-specific rates of immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy: Report from an Italian Breast Unit.

Background And Objectives: Immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) represents a fundamental part in the management of patients receiving mastectomy. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the use of IBR in all age groups. The study aims were to evaluate the age-specific trend of IBR, and to discuss its effects in work organization at an Italian Breast Unit.

Emotionally clocked out: cell-type specific regulation of mood and anxiety by the circadian clock system in the brain.

Circadian rhythms are self-sustained oscillations of biological systems that allow an organism to anticipate periodic changes in the environment and optimally align feeding, sleep, wakefulness, and the physiological and biochemical processes that support them within the 24 h cycle. These rhythms are generated at a cellular level by a set of genes, known as clock genes, which code for proteins that inhibit their own transcription in a negative feedback loop and can be perturbed by stress, a risk factor for the development of mood and anxiety disorders. A role for circadian clocks in mood and anxiety has been suggested for decades on the basis of clinical observations, and the dysregulation of circadian rhythms is a prominent clinical feature of stress-related disorders.

Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma to Treat Long-Standing COVID-19 in Patients with B-Cell Depletion.

The use of antivirals, corticosteroids, and IL-6 inhibitors has been recommended by the WHO to treat COVID-19. CP has also been considered for severe and critical cases. Clinical trials on CP have shown contradictory results, but an increasing number of patients, including immunocompromised ones, have shown benefits from this treatment.

Serious complications of pancreatoduodenectomy correlate with lower rates of adjuvant chemotherapy: Results from the recurrence after Whipple's (RAW) study.

Introduction: Adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) can prolong overall survival (OS) after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, fitness for AC may be influenced by postoperative recovery. We aimed to investigate if serious (Clavien-Dindo grade ≥ IIIa) postoperative complications affected AC rates, disease recurrence and OS.

Improving endothelial health with food-derived HS donors: an study with -allyl cysteine and with a black-garlic extract enriched in sulfur-containing compounds.

A healthy vascular endothelium plays an essential role in modulating vascular tone by producing and releasing vasoactive factors such as nitric oxide (NO). Endothelial dysfunction (ED), the loss of the endothelium physiological functions, results in the inability to properly regulate vascular tone, leading to hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors. Alongside NO, the gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide (HS) has emerged as a key molecule with vasodilatory and antioxidant activities.

Nicotine-Mediated Recruitment of GABAergic Neurons to a Dopaminergic Phenotype Attenuates Motor Deficits in an Alpha-Synuclein Parkinson's Model.

Previous work revealed an inverse correlation between tobacco smoking and Parkinson's disease (PD) that is associated with nicotine-induced neuroprotection of dopaminergic (DA) neurons against nigrostriatal damage in PD primates and rodent models. Nicotine, a neuroactive component of tobacco, can directly alter the activity of midbrain DA neurons and induce non-DA neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) to acquire a DA phenotype. Here, we investigated the recruitment mechanism of nigrostriatal GABAergic neurons to express DA phenotypes, such as transcription factor Nurr1 and DA-synthesizing enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and the concomitant effects on motor function.

Nuclear receptor 5A2 regulation of Agrp underlies olanzapine-induced hyperphagia.

Antipsychotic (AP) drugs are efficacious treatments for various psychiatric disorders, but excessive weight gain and subsequent development of metabolic disease remain serious side effects of their use. Increased food intake leads to AP-induced weight gain, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown. In previous studies, we identified the neuropeptide Agrp and the transcription factor nuclear receptor subfamily 5 group A member 2 (Nr5a2) as significantly upregulated genes in the hypothalamus following AP-induced hyperphagia.

Breast-conserving therapy leads to better survival outcomes compared to mastectomy in patients with early breast cancer: evidences from the recent literature.

Classical studies comparing breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and mastectomy (Mx) focused on the non-inferiority of BCT in terms of survival outcomes. However, recent large retrospective studies have provided evidence that BCT could confer a survival advantage over Mx. The prognostic benefit of BCT was observed in all molecular subgroups, including triple negative breast cancer, and also in young patients affected from the disease, who are often submitted to Mx irrespective of tumor size.