Publications by authors named "R Balter"
Article Synopsis
- - The study examined complications related to central venous catheters (CVCs) in children with hematologic-oncologic diseases, discovering a total of 671 complications recorded over 153,731 CVC days, averaging 4.365 complications per 1000 CVC days.
- - Key findings indicated that nearly half of all complications were due to malfunctions, followed by bacteremia and mechanical issues, with various CVC types significantly affecting the risk levels.
- - The research concluded that around 20-25% of long-term CVCs are prematurely removed, underlining the need for ongoing monitoring to better manage CVCs and reduce complications in pediatric patients.
The treatment of pediatric patients with refractory or relapsed anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is still a major challenge. In addition to conventional chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, new therapeutic options such as anti-CD30 drugs and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors have been recently introduced in this setting. Among ALK inhibitors, only the first-generation molecule crizotinib is approved for pediatric use, while second-generation molecules, such as brigatinib, are still under investigation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBloodstream infections (BSIs) after chemotherapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Data on 154 BSIs that occurred in 111 onco-hematological patients (57 hematological malignancies, 28 solid tumors, and 26 non-malignant hematological diseases) were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Monomicrobial Gram-positive (GP), Gram-negative (GN), and fungal BSIs accounted for 50% (77/154), 38.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-term survival for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children improved over the last three decades up to 80-90% of affected patients. Consequently, the quality of life of survivors has become increasingly important. This study analyses the clinical features and outcome of 119 children with ALL, focusing on the quality of long-term survival in a subset of 22 patients over 18 years of age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Invasive mucormycosis is a very aggressive fungal disease among immunocompromised pediatric patients caused by saprophytic fungi that belong to the order of the Mucorales.
Case Report: We describe a case of of infection in a 15-year-old child with B-cell-Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (B-NHL) involving lung, kidney and thyroid that initially was diagnosed as probable aspergillosis delaying the effective therapy for mucormycosis.
Conclusions: This case showed that also the intensive chemotherapy for B-NHL may represent a risk factor for mucormycosis infection.