Publications by authors named "Stefano Meucci"

Climate change is expected to cause major shifts in boreal forests which are in vast areas of Siberia dominated by two species of the deciduous needle tree larch (Larix). The species differ markedly in their ecosystem functions, thus shifts in their respective ranges are of global relevance. However, drivers of species distribution are not well understood, in part because paleoecological data at species level are lacking.

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Climate warming alters plant composition and population dynamics of arctic ecosystems. In particular, an increase in relative abundance and cover of deciduous shrub species (shrubification) has been recorded. We inferred genetic variation of common shrub species (, , sp.

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Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common cause of global cancer-related mortality and the major risk factor is smoking consumption. By analyzing 486 LUAD samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we detected a higher mutational burden among younger patients in the global cohort as well as in the TP53-mutated subcohort. The interaction effect of patient age and TP53 mutations significantly affected the mutational rate of younger TP53-mutated patients.

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Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is the most common cause of global cancer-related mortality and the major risk factors is smoking consumption. By analyzing ∼500 LUSC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we detected a higher mutational burden as well as a higher level of methylation changes in younger patients. The SNPs mutational profiling showed enrichments of smoking-related signature 4 and defective DNA mismatch repair (MMR)-related signature 6 in younger patients, while the defective DNA MMR signature 26 was enriched among older patients.

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As predictive markers for anti-EGFR therapy, KRAS and BRAF mutations are routinely detected in primary and metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) cells, but seldom in circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Detecting mutations in CTCs could help explain mutational differences between tumor cells at local sites and distant metastases, thereby improving treatment outcomes. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare KRAS and BRAF mutations in paired CTCs and primary tumors from CRC patients, to detect any possible discordance.

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Guanylyl cyclase C (GCC) is a transmembrane surface receptor restricted to intestinal epithelial cells, from the duodenum to the rectum. We compared GCC expression in tumors and normal rectal tissues, and investigated the relation between GCC expression and metastasis and long-term survival of rectal cancer patients. Based on the UICC classification, 42 rectal cancer patients in this study were classified as stage I, 48 patients as stage II, and 90 patients as stage III.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a cancer with well-defined tumor causes such as HPV infection, smoking and drinking. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) HNSCC cohort we systematically studied the mutational load as well as patterns related to patient age in HNSCC. To obtain a homogenous set we excluded all patients with HPV infection as well as wild type TP53.

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