Prognostic Role of Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Large, Multicenter, Prospective Trial.

Background: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) correlate with adverse prognosis in patients with breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer. Little data are available for renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Materials And Methods: We designed a multicenter prospective observational study to assess the correlation between CTC counts and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic RCC treated with an antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitor as a first-line regimen; overall survival (OS) and response were secondary objectives.

Circulating Tumor DNA Testing for Homology Recombination Repair Genes in Prostate Cancer: From the Lab to the Clinic.

Approximately 23% of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancers (mCRPC) harbor deleterious aberrations in DNA repair genes. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPi) therapy has shown improvements in overall survival in patients with mCRPC who harbor somatic and/or germline alterations of homology recombination repair (HRR) genes. Peripheral blood samples are typically used for the germline mutation analysis test using the DNA extracted from peripheral blood leucocytes.

Conceptual Analogies Between Multi-Scale Feeding and Feedback Cycles in Supermassive Black Hole and Cancer Environments.

Adopting three physically-motivated scales ("micro" - "meso" - "macro", which refer to mpc - kpc - Mpc, respectively) is paramount for achieving a unified theory of multiphase active galactic nuclei feeding and feedback, and it represents a keystone for astrophysical simulations and observations in the upcoming years. In order to promote this multi-scale idea, we have decided to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the possible conceptual similarities between supermassive black hole feeding and feedback cycles and the dynamics occurring in human cancer microenvironment.

Agent-Based Learning Model for the Obesity Paradox in RCC.

A recent study on the immunotherapy treatment of renal cell carcinoma reveals better outcomes in obese patients compared to lean subjects. This enigmatic contradiction has been explained, in the context of the debated obesity paradox, as the produced by the cell-cell interaction network on the tumor microenvironment during the immune response. To better understand this hypothesis, we provide a computational framework for the study of the tumor behavior.

Digital Frozen Sections with Fluorescence Confocal Microscopy During Robot-assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Surgical Technique.

Background: Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) involves a tradeoff between oncological control and functional outcomes. Intraoperative control of surgical margins (SMs) may help in ensuring the safety of the dissection. Fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM) is an effective method for interpretation of prostate tissue and provides digital images with an appearance similar to hematoxylin-eosin staining.

Manipulating macrophage polarization in cancer patients: From nanoparticles to human chimeric antigen receptor macrophages.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell treatment has provided notable results in hematological tumors. Unfortunately, this evidence has not been translated into improved outcomes in solid malignancies so far, where several reports have suggested that T cells encounter substantial difficulties in penetrating and surviving in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Thus, researchers have recently investigated other immune cell types as CAR platforms, in order to overcome the limitations of CAR T cells.

Patch testing of budesonide in Italy: The SIDAPA baseline series experience, 2018-2019.

Background: Budesonide was included in the European Baseline Series in 2000 as the most suitable marker forcorticosteroid hypersensitivity. In the last two decades, a decreasing trend of budesonide allergy has been observed.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of positive patch test reactions to budesonide in a large, Italian patch test population, characterizing patients according to MOAHLFA index and evaluating the benefit with extended readings of budesonide patch test.

Safety and Efficacy of Vaccines during COVID-19 Pandemic in Patients Treated with Biological Drugs in a Dermatological Setting.

The BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines, consisting of mRNA, have recently become available. The absolute novelty of these vaccines introduces questions about their safety and efficacy, especially in patients who are treated with biological drugs in dermatology. The aim of our review was to provide a broad overview of the current use of all available vaccinations in concomitance with biological therapy and to suggest indications for the new mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.

Comparative effectiveness of first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors according to IMDC risk groups in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based combinations have become the new standard of primary systemic treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients. We performed a meta-analysis aimed at evaluating ICIs plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) combinations across International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) risk groups. All the relevant randomized clinical trials were retrieved through Cochrane library, PubMed/Med and EMBASE; three Phase III randomized clinical trials were included.

Molecular pathology of urothelial carcinoma.

The current personalized oncology era has witnessed significant efforts to integrate clinical, pathological, and molecular classifications. The growing need for molecular biomarkers to feed personalized oncology, together with the unprecedented wealth of knowledge on the molecular basis of bladder cancer, has led to a novel approach to this disease, incorporating molecularly generated data in clinical practice for locally advanced or metastatic disease. Translational research allows a better understanding of the early events in the development of urothelial carcinoma in the urinary bladder.

Adjuvant therapy in renal cell carcinoma: is it the right strategy to inhibit VEGF?

Despite several clinical trials have assessed different agents in the adjuvant setting, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) still remains a disease orphan of an effective adjuvant treatment. In fact, systemic therapies targeting angiogenesis that have been observed to be effective in metastatic setting failed to show an improvement in terms of clinical outcomes when used ad adjuvant treatments. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of 5 randomized clinical trials to assess the impact of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting angiogenesis after surgery: ASSURE, S-TRAC, PROTECT, ATLAS, SORCE.

Current and future perspectives of digital microscopy with fluorescence confocal microscope for prostate tissue interpretation: a narrative review.

Fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM) is an optical imaging technique providing digital microscopical images of fresh tissue in a real time fashion, without conventional processing. FCM has been widely applied in several fields of dermatology, including the detection of basal cell carcinoma and of cutaneous inflammatory diseases. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of FCM applications in the field of prostate tissue interpretation and prostate cancer (PCa) detection.

Narrative review: predicting future molecular and clinical profiles of prostate cancer in the United States.

Prostate cancer represents the most frequent tumor in men, accounting for the 21% of all diagnosed tumors, with 191,930 new cases and 33,330 deaths estimated in 2020. Advanced prostate cancer represents a heterogeneous disease, ranging from hormone naive or hormone sensitive to castration resistant. The therapeutic armamentarium for this disease has been implemented in the last years by novel hormonal therapies and chemotherapies.

TNM staging towards a personalized approach in metastatic urothelial carcinoma: what will the future be like?-a narrative review.

The American Joint Committee of Cancer (AJCC) tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification, with its periodical updates and modifications, has represented and still represents the basis of cancer staging. The historical, long-standing limitations of anatomic-based TNM staging have been recently "threatened" by the impressive amount of data derived from molecular analyses, which have led to an unprecedented level of understanding of cancer genomics. In fact, current era of personalized oncology has witnessed important efforts towards the integration between clinical, anatomical and molecular features; however, despite the promises, personalized oncology faces many obstacles, due to the complex relationship between tumor biomarkers, previously unknown cancer subtypes and clinical and anatomical characteristics.

Narrative review of prostate cancer grading systems: will the Gleason scores be replaced by the Grade Groups?

The Gleason grading system, proposed by Dr. Donald F. Gleason in 1966, is one of the most important prognostic factors in men with prostate cancer (PCa).

Narrative review: update on immunotherapy and pathological features in patients with bladder cancer.

Over the last few years efficacy of immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has been investigated in patients with bladder cancer (BC) at all stages. The present article aims to assess new therapeutic options with emerging agents in BC patients, shedding light on ICI-based treatments encompassing all disease stages, from non-muscle invasive (NMIBC) to muscle-invasive (MIBC) BC, concluding with metastatic MIBC. In bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) unresponsive patients with carcinoma in situ, pembrolizumab has been recently approved.

Towards a new WHO classification of renal cell tumor: what the clinician needs to know-a narrative review.

In 1952, renal cell carcinomas had been divided into 2 categories-clear cell or granular cell-depending upon their cytoplasmic staining characteristics. In the following years, the inventory of renal epithelial tumors has expanded by the addition of tumors named by their architectural pattern (i.e.