Local Control, Survival, and Toxicity Outcomes with High-Dose-Rate Peri-Operative Interventional Radiotherapy (Brachytherapy) in Head and Neck Cancers: A Systematic Review.

Peri-operative interventional radiotherapy (POIRT) entails tumor resection, catheter implantation in the same surgery, and irradiation within the peri-operative period. It allows for maximal tumor burden reduction, better tumor bed identification, more flexible implant geometry, highly conformal irradiation, and treatment delay minimization. We reviewed the published local control, survival, toxicity, and quality of life (QOL) outcomes with POIRT for head and neck cancers (HNCs) in primary and re-irradiation settings.

Endoscopic Management of Strictures in Crohn's Disease: An Unsolved Case.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with a significant burden in terms of quality of life and health care costs. It is frequently associated with several complications, including the development of intestinal strictures. Stricturing CD requires a careful multidisciplinary approach involving medical therapy and surgery, still posing a continuous management challenge; in this context, endoscopic treatment represents a valuable, in-between opportunity as a minimally invasive strategy endorsed by extensive yet heterogeneous evidence and evolving research and techniques.

High-Dose Neutrophil-Depleted Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Study.

: Encouraging results have been reported for Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) treatment for knee osteoarthritis (KOA). This study reports the efficacy and safety of a high dose of neutrophile and red-blood-cell-depleted PRP to treat patients with KOA. : A total of 212 consecutive patients diagnosed with Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grading 1-3 KOA chronic knee pain for at least 1 year were treated with three injections at 15-day intervals with a high dose of neutrophil-depleted PRP (4 billion platelets).

Returning to Work after Breast Cancer: A One-Year Mixed-Methods Study.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common invasive neoplasm and affects many women of working age. The return to work (RTW) of female survivors (BCSs) is associated with a better quality of life and longer survival. A tailored intervention to promote RTW was launched in 2022.

The Interplay between Gender and Duration of Hospitalization Modulates Psychiatric Symptom Severity in Subjects with Long COVID-19.

Long COVID-19 is characterized by ongoing symptoms or prolonged or long-term complications of SARS-CoV-2 contraction which persist beyond 4 weeks from the initial onset of symptoms. Gender and duration of hospitalization (DH) are key risk factors for developing long COVID-19 syndrome, but their impact and interplay need further study. This research involved 996 long COVID-19 patients, and we compared the levels of general psychopathology, depression, agitated depression, anxiety, and medication use between hospitalized and non-hospitalized males and females.

Oxidative Cysteine Post Translational Modifications Drive the Redox Code Underlying Neurodegeneration and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Redox dysregulation, an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants, is crucial in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative diseases. Within this context, the "redoxome" encompasses the network of redox molecules collaborating to maintain cellular redox balance and signaling. Among these, cysteine-sensitive proteins are fundamental for this homeostasis.

Prevention and management of radiotherapy-related toxicities in gynecological malignancies. Position paper on behalf of AIRO (Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology).

Multi-modal therapies for gynecological cancers management may determine a wide range of side effects which depend on therapy-related factors and patient characteristics and comorbidities. Curative or adjuvant pelvic radiotherapy is linked with acute and late toxicity due to irradiation of organs at risk, as small and large bowel, rectum, bladder, pelvic bone, vagina and bone marrow. Successful toxicity management varies with its severity, Radiation Centre practice and experience and skills of radiation oncologists.

Special Types of Breast Cancer: Clinical Behavior and Radiological Appearance.

Breast cancer is a complex disease that includes entities with different characteristics, behaviors, and responses to treatment. Breast cancers are categorized into subgroups based on histological type and grade, and these subgroups affect clinical presentation and oncological outcomes. The subgroup of "special types" encompasses all those breast cancers with insufficient features to belong to the subgroup "invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified".

Dexamethasone and N-acetylcysteine before transarterial chemoembolization in hepatocellular carcinoma: A Western perspective.

Post-embolization syndrome (PES) is the most common complication in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with transarterial chemoembolization. Many strategies have been evaluated to reduce the incidence of PES, but no standard prevention guidelines currently exist. In a single-center, placebo-controlled trial, Simasingha evaluated the prophylactic administration of a combination of dexamethasone and N-acetylcysteine and documented a significant reduction in the incidence of PES (from 80% to 6%), of post-procedural liver decompensation (from 14% to 0%), and a shorter hospital stay (4 days 6 days), alongside an acceptable safety profile.

Efficacy and safety of a single-use cholangioscope for percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy.

Percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy (PTCS) is a management option for patients in whom peroral cholangioscopy or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) fail. We conducted a case series on the efficacy and safety of PTCS using a cholangiopancreatoscope cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020. Fifty adult patients scheduled for PTCS or other cholangioscopic procedure were enrolled at seven academic medical centers and followed for 30 days after the index procedure.

Imaging in pelvic exenteration-a multidisciplinary practice guide from the ESGAR-SAR-ESUR-PelvEx collaborative group.

Pelvic exenteration (PE) is a radical surgical approach designed for the curative treatment of advanced pelvic malignancies, requiring en-bloc resection of multiple pelvic organs. While the procedure is radical, it has shown promise in enhancing long-term survival and is now comparable in surgical mortality to elective resections for primary pelvic cancers. Imaging plays a crucial role in preoperative planning, with MRI, CT, and PET/CT being pivotal in assessing the extent of cancer and formulating a surgical roadmap.

Highlights from the 25th European Congress on Gynaecological Oncology in Barcelona: the ENYGO-IJGC Fellow Interviews.

In March 2024, 12 European Network of Young Gynae Oncologists- (ENYGO-IJGC) Editorial Fellows conducted 10 interviews with senior opinion leaders on original and controversial topics in the field of gynecologic oncology presented during the 25th European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) Congress in Barcelona, Spain. This article provides a summary and overview of the content of these discussions summarizing key points presented at the meeting. These selected interviews were chosen by consensus by the ENYGO-IJGC Editorial Fellows based on novelty and relevance to the field of gynecologic oncology.

A Comprehensive Natural Language Processing Pipeline for the Chronic Lupus Disease.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) contain a wealth of unstructured patient data, making it challenging for physicians to do informed decisions. In this paper, we introduce a Natural Language Processing (NLP) approach for the extraction of therapies, diagnosis, and symptoms from ambulatory EHRs of patients with chronic Lupus disease. We aim to demonstrate the effort of a comprehensive pipeline where a rule-based system is combined with text segmentation, transformer-based topic analysis and clinical ontology, in order to enhance text preprocessing and automate rules' identification.

Securing Reproducibility and Accountability in Distributed Healthcare Analytics: A Framework Based on Blockchain and Cryptography.

The results and details of the clinical studies and research must be securely stored to ensure reliability, accountability, and prevent malicious misuse. To accomplish this, a secure method for storing metadata and study results is crucial. Also, a mechanism to ensure accountability for both data owners and researchers is needed.

Profiling severe asthma: Any relevance for age? An analysis from Severe Asthma Network Italy (SANI) cohort.

Background: Aging implies changes in terms of lung function, immune system, and respiratory and extra-respiratory comorbidities. Few studies have specifically addressed the relevance of age on severe asthma burden and control. We aimed to evaluate whether age acts as an independent determinant of asthma severity, in terms of clinical, functional, and inflammatory profile, and to explore potential cofactors that contribute to a more difficult disease control in different age groups.

Ergonomics in the operating room and surgical training: a survey on the Italian scenario.

Introduction: Surgical-related injuries are frequent, in fact the reported percentage of musculoskeletal disorders in surgeons is between 47% and 87%. These conditions are caused by long periods of standing, incorrect postures, repeated movements, little rest between operations, the lack of integrated operator rooms, the correct number and arrangement of monitors and the use of non-ergonomic instruments. This survey aims to assess the Italian overview both highlighting how prevalent surgical-related injury is in our surgeons and whether there is an operating room ergonomics education program in Italian surgical specialty schools.

The influence of insulin and incretin-based therapies on renal tubular transport.

The tubular function of the kidney is very complex and is finely regulated by many factors. These include a variety of hormonal signaling pathways which are involved in the expression, activation and regulation of renal transporters responsible for the handling of electrolytes. Glucose-lowering drugs such as insulin and incretin-based therapies, exert a well-known renal protective role in diabetic kidney disease, mainly acting at the glomerular level.

Cardiac MRI in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Patients who have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) have signs and symptoms of heart failure, yet their ejection fraction remains greater than or equal to 50 percent. Understanding the underlying cause of HFpEF is crucial for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. This condition can be caused by multiple factors, including ischemic or nonischemic myocardial diseases.