Publications by authors named "Porzio G"

Background: Medical cannabis (MC) has gained traction in oncology for managing cancer-related symptoms, but its integration faces challenges due to limited evidence, inconsistent guidelines, and varied legal frameworks.

Methods: The TASMAN study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of oncologists and palliative care providers globally regarding MC use in cancer care. A survey of healthcare providers from diverse regions and income levels was conducted.

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Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with pain experienced by most patients undergoing cancer treatment. Opioids are the recommended treatment for cancer pain management, but recent studies suggest a negative association between opioid use and survival rates among patients undergoing immunotherapy. However, conclusions cannot be drawn regarding causality from these observational data.

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Objectives: We described time to death and rates of palliative sedation during home palliative care leveraging a retrospective cohort of patients with advanced cancer.

Methods: The cohort consists of 143 patients with solid or haematological malignancies admitted to home palliative care in the Tuscany region in central Italy. Only patients for whom a date of death was available were included.

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Underlying cancer pain has heterogenous aetiologies and mechanisms. It requires detailed and comprehensive pain assessment, combined with personalized treatment. A multidisciplinary team is essential to providing the best management of cancer pain at every disease stage, improving the quality of life and outcomes in patients with cancer.

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Introduction: Cancer patients and their caregivers have substantial unmet needs, that negatively impact the clinical outcome and quality of life. However, interventions aimed to address such needs are still suboptimal, failing to answer the recent healthcare call for the adoption of value-based models of care. In the case of incurable oncologic and hematologic cancers, a value-based model of care should plan advanced care on patients' needs and include the quality of death as an outcome.

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Objective: A cancer diagnosis represents a unique trauma, given its life-threatening, multidimensional, and uncertain nature. Gratitude is a construct representing the emotional state that arises when individuals recognize that a benefit has been received as a result of someone else's action or a spiritual entity's intervention. Based on the positive psychological wellbeing, gratitude has been associated with improved health outcomes even in the disease setting.

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In light of the establishment of a permanent technical work table to address issues relating to cannabis for medical use, it is necessary to reflect free from ideological conditioning on the effectiveness and perception of the use of these "products" on the populations indicated in the regulatory note current. Taking a cue from two recently published works, which photograph a poor level of knowledge on medical cannabis by patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals, we believe it is necessary to overcome ideological preconceptions by building educational programs and national guidelines that offer therapeutic opportunities based on solid scientific evidence.

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Article Synopsis
  • Family history of cancer (FHC) is linked to better survival rates in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor pembrolizumab compared to those receiving chemotherapy.
  • In a study comparing FHC-high and FHC-low/negative patients, the FHC-high group showed significantly longer overall and progression-free survival and higher disease control rates when treated with pembrolizumab.
  • The findings suggest that FHC can help identify NSCLC patients who may benefit more from specific cancer treatments, but further studies are needed to explore the genetic factors involved.
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Background: Patients with programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) ≥50% metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) and ECOG performance status (PS) of 2 treated with first-line immunotherapy have heterogeneous clinical assessment and outcomes.

Methods: To explore the role of immune-inflammatory surrogates by the validated lung immuno-oncology prognostic score (LIPS) score, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the pretreatment use of steroids, alongside other prognostic variables. A retrospective analysis of 128 patients with PS2 and PD-L1 ≥50% mNSCLC treated between April 2018 and September 2019 with first-line pembrolizumab in a real-world setting was performed.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to determine if COVID-19 severity and death rates among patients with cancer improved over time during the pandemic.
  • It utilized data from the OnCovid registry, which included nearly 2,800 patients with various types of cancer from 6 European countries, focusing on patient outcomes from February 2020 to February 2021.
  • Results showed that the 14-day case-fatality rate significantly decreased over time, suggesting improved management and outcomes for cancer patients infected with COVID-19.
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Background: Skin toxicity in patients affected by metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors is well known. However, ad hoc ESMO guidelines have only recently been published.

Aim And Methods: To describe the management (pre-emptive or reactive) of anti-EGFR-related cutaneous adverse events (AEs), in a real-life clinical context, in a selected population of patients with left-sided, metastatic RAS/BRAF wild-type mCRC treated with doublet chemotherapy plus anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody (i.

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Background: Few data regarding post-induction management following first-line anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-based doublet regimens in patients with left-sided wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) are available.

Methods: This multicenter, retrospective study aimed at evaluating clinicians' attitude, and the safety and effectiveness of post-induction strategies in consecutive patients affected by left-sided wild-type mCRC treated with doublet chemotherapy plus anti-EGFR as first-line regimen, who did not experience disease progression within 6 months from induction initiation, at 21 Italian and 1 Spanish Institutions. The measured clinical outcomes were: progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), adverse events, and objective response rate (ORR).

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Background: Cancer patients are at higher risk of COVID-19 complications and mortality than the rest of the population. Breast cancer patients seem to have better prognosis when infected by SARS-CoV-2 than other cancer patients.

Methods: We report a subanalysis of the OnCovid study providing more detailed information in the breast cancer population.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients, focusing on the prevalence of long-term effects (sequelae) and their influence on patient survival.
  • The research involved 2,634 eligible cancer patients who had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and were assessed several months after recovery to analyze their health outcomes.
  • Results showed 1,557 COVID-19 survivors underwent a formal reassessment about 22 months post-cancer diagnosis, revealing insights into the effects of COVID-19 on their treatment and survival.
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Background: The prognostic relevance of early immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in patients affected by non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) upon immunotherapy is not fully understood.

Methods: The Leading to Treatment Discontinuation cohort included 24 patients experiencing severe irAEs after one of two administrations of single anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in any line setting for metastatic NSCLC between November 2015 and June 2019. The control cohort was composed of 526 patients treated with single anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in any line setting with no severe irAE reported.

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Background: Doublets plus antiepidermal growth factor receptors monoclonal antibodies (EGFRi) are widely considered the preferable first-line regimen in patients with left-sided RAS/BRAF wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), resulting superior in terms of activity and efficacy compared to doublets plus bevacizumab. However, data comparing doublet plus EGFRi and triplet plus bevacizumab are lacking, and the relative benefit of an intensive regimen plus an antiangiogenic backbone in this population is debated.

Methods: This multicenter, retrospective study aimed at evaluating clinicians' attitude to triplet-bevacizumab and doublet-EGFRi as first-line regimen in patients with left-sided RAS/BRAF wild-type mCRC treated in clinical practice at 22 Oncology Units from March 2012 to October 2020.

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Purpose: Despite advances in supportive care, cancer-related symptoms tend to be persistent regardless of cancer type, stage of disease, or treatment received. There is an increasing prescription for complementary and alternative medicines, such as medical cannabis (MC). Knowledge and attitudes of Italian medical oncologists and palliative care physicians toward medical cannabis in cancer care remain unknown.

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Background: The favourable safety profile and the increasing confidence with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) might have boosted their prescription in frail patients with short life expectancies, who usually are not treated with standard chemotherapy.

Methods: The present analysis aims to describe clinicians' attitudes towards ICIs administration during late stages of life within a multicenter cohort of advanced cancer patients treated with single agent PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors in Italy.

Results: Overall, 1149 patients with advanced cancer who received single agent PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors were screened.

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Background: Despite the increase in chances of cure for early breast cancer (EBC) patients, approximately 20-45% of them will experience a disease recurrence, particularly bone metastases in 60-80% of cases, which occur more frequently in luminal subtypes. Endocrine therapy (ET) has always been the milestone of adjuvant treatment for hormone receptor-positive EBC patients, leading to indubitable reduction of disease recurrence risk. However, adjuvant aromatase inhibitors (AIs) therapy may promote a progressive decrease in bone mineral density (BMD), which can lead to osteoporosis.

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