Publications by authors named "Valentina Viggiani"

"Background/Aim": the current inability to diagnose Pancreatic Cancer Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at an early stage strongly influences therapeutic strategies. Protein Induced by Vitamin K Absence (PIVKA II) showed an accurate diagnostic performance for PDAC. Since circulating PIVKA II has been recently associated with pancreatic origin cells with Vimentin, an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) early activation marker, the aim of this study was to investigate in vivo the combination between the two proteins.

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To quantify the circulating levels of novel serum biomarkers including GDF-15, PIVKA-II, sdLDL, suPAR, and of CRP in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared with healthy subjects, and to evaluate their association(s) with outcomes in COVID-19. We considered patients with confirmed COVID-19, hospitalized in an Internal Medicine ward. The clinical characteristics were collected, including the number and type of comorbidities.

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Background: Endometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent, inflammatory disease, whose pivotal symptoms are dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Besides the usual medical treatments, recent evidence suggests there are potential benefits of oral N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on endometriotic lesions and pain. The primary objective of this prospective single-cohort study was to confirm the effectiveness of NAC in reducing endometriosis-related pain and the size of ovarian endometriomas.

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Background: Hereditary ovarian cancers (HOC) represent about 23% of ovarian cancer (OC) cases: they are most frequently related to germline mutations in the BRCA genes.

Objective: We aimed to compare CA125/HE4 serum levels and Computed Tomography (CT) features at time of ovarian cancer (OC) diagnosis in two populations: BRCA mutant and BRCA wild-type (WT) OC, and to investigate the relationship between this laboratory and radiological biomarker and BRCA mutation status.

Methods: This retrospective study included 60 newly diagnosed OC patients with FIGO stage IIIC-IV disease, tested for BRCA1/2 germline mutation status of which preoperative CT scan and serum tumor marker assay were available.

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Background: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an incurable cancer without adequate tumor markers. Our previous study has showed a better diagnostic performance of Protein Induced by Vitamin K Absence II (PIVKA-II) compared to currently used PDAC biomarkers. To corroborate our previous data with a larger sample size and to assess a possible role of PIVKA-II in predicting surgical success.

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Introduction: Protein induced by vitamin K absence II (PIVKA-II) is an abnormal prothrombin increased in gastrointestinal malignancy. We aimed to evaluate PIVKA-II in comparison to established pancreatic cancer (PC) biomarkers (CA 19-9, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA 242) measured in PC patients and in patients with benign pancreatic diseases.

Materials And Methods: We studied 26 PC patients (Group 1) and 20 patients with benign pancreatic diseases (Group 2).

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Objective: As a marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), Protein Induced by Vitamin K Absence II (PIVKA-II) seems to be superior to alpha fetoprotein (AFP). To better characterize the role of PIVKA-II, both AFP and PIVKA-II have been measured in Italian patients with diagnosis of HCC compared with patients affected by non-oncological liver pathologies.

Materials And Methods: Sixty serum samples from patients with HCC, 60 samples from patients with benign liver disease and 60 samples obtained from healthy blood donors were included in the study.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between 25-OH vitamin D and ovarian cancer as a diagnostic marker or recurrence disease marker. We studied the following: (1) 61 women without gynecologic diseases, (2) 45 women affected by benign ovarian disease, (3) 46 women with recent diagnosis of ovarian cancer, (4) 26 follow-up women with recurrent ovarian cancer, and (5) 32 follow-up women with stable ovarian cancer. The 25-OH vitamin D was quantified with LUMIPULSE® G 25-OH vitamin D on LUMIPULSE® G 1200 (Fujirebio, Japan).

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The aim of the present study was to evaluate human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) as a marker of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) relapse and the combination of this biomarker with contrast-enhanced high-resolution multidetector row computed tomography CE CT imaging to impove the monitoring of EOC patients. Twenty-one patients with advanced EOC (FIGO III/IV) who underwent surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively selected. Each patient contributed 3 serum samples drawn at 3-month intervals: time interval I (1-3 months from surgery), time interval II (4-6 months from surgery) and time interval III (7-10 months from surgery).

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Tumor markers are commonly used to detect a relapse of disease in oncologic patients during follow-up. It is important to evaluate new assay systems for a better and more precise assessment, as a standardized method is currently lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the concordance between an automated chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay system (LUMIPULSE® G1200) and our reference methods using seven tumor markers.

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The purpose of the study was to evaluate the expression of the biomarkers CA125 and HE4 combined with imaging, in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Forty-six women with EOC were included in the study all affected with peritoneal carcinomatosis. Twenty-two of 46 patients (group I) had peritoneal carcinomatosis with small implants in single or in multiple sites (score 1); 24/46 patients (group II) had macro-nodular implants and omental thickening (score 2).

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The objective of the present study was to investigate in healthy young women the fluctuations in serum concentration of human epididymal secretory protein human epididymis-specific protein 4 (HE4) and CA125 during the phases of the menstrual cycle and the correlation between HE4 and CA125 values and age. Forty women with regular menstrual cycles were included in the study. Pelvic and transvaginal ultrasound were performed in order to exclude ovarian pathologies.

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Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) has recently been described as a new marker for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer (OC). The objective of this study was to evaluate (a) the expression of HE4 vs. OC mucin CA125 in 32 patients with OC compared to 163 patients with other malignant or benign pathologies (b) HE4 as indicator of the recurrence of the disease in eight patients followed-up for 20 months after OC diagnosis.

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