Bevacizumab plus XELOX as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer: The OBELIX study

AIM: To confirm the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab/XELOX combination for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) in Italy. METHODS: This multicentric, prospective, open-label study included patients with CRC previously untreated with chemotherapy. Patients were administered bevacizumab in combination with XELOX. The primary efficacy end-point was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end-points included time to overall response (TOR), duration of response (DOR), time to treatment failure (TTF) and overall survival (OS). The incidence and type of adverse events AEs and severe AEs were evaluated. Also, the mutational status of BRAF and KRAS was assessed by high resolution melting and direct sequencing, and quality of life (QoL) was measured by the EuroQoL EQ-5D questionnaire at baseline and at the last visit. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat population included 197 patients (mean age: 62.3 ± 9.9 years, 56.4% males). At baseline, 16/34 evaluable subjects (47.1%) harbored a KRAS and/or a BRAF mutation; the mean QoL index was 80.2 ± 14.3. First-line therapy was given for 223.7 ± 175.9 d, and after a mean follow-up of 387.7 ± 238.8 d all patients discontinued from the study mainly for disease progression (PD, 45.4%) and AEs (25.4%). Median PFS was 9.7 mo (95%CI: 8.4-10.5) and the median values for secondary end-points were: TOR = 3.9 mo (95%CI: 2.6-4.7), DOR = 8.5 mo (95%CI: 7.3-10.3), TTF = 6.7 mo (95%CI: 6.0-7.7) and OS = 23.2 mo (95%CI: 20.1-27.2). Patients carrying at least one lesion had a lower overall response rate (66.7% vs 88.9%) and a lower probability of achieving complete or partial response than those without mutations, but the difference in relative risk was not statistically significant (P = 0.2). Mean EQ-5D-3L raw index score significantly decreased to 74.9 ± 19.1 at the last visit (signed-rank test, P = 0.0076), but in general the evaluation on QoL perceived by patients was good. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of bevacizumab in combination with XELOX in terms of PFS in patients with aCRC or mCRC in Italy was confirmed, with acceptable toxicity

Penile metastasis from primary transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis: first manifestation of systemic spread

BACKGROUND: Almost one-third of all penile metastases are detected at the same time as a primary tumor, whereas the remaining two-thirds are detected a mean of 18 months after the discovery of the primary tumor. Cutaneous metastasis of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is extremely rare and generally accepted as the late manifestation of a systemic spread. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the first case of simultaneous penile and lung metastases from a primary TCC of the renal pelvis in a 76-year-old man, that occurred 8 years after a left nephroureterectomy. CONCLUSIONS: This case report underscores the importance of physical examinations of the skin of patients who undergo surgical procedures for TCC from bladder as well as from the upper urinary tract, including those seemingly without metastatic disease, because of the possibility of skin and penile metastatic spread

Cytochrome 450 1B1 (CYP1B1) polymorphisms associated with response to docetaxel in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) patients

BACKGROUND: The selection of patients according to key genetic characteristics may help to tailor chemotherapy and optimize the treatment in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) patients. Functional polymorphisms within the cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) gene have been associated with alterations in enzymatic expression and activity and may change sensitivity to the widely used docetaxel regimen. METHODS: CYP1B1 genotyping was performed on blood samples of 60 CRPC patients treated with docetaxel, using TaqMan probes-based assays. Association between CYP1B1-142C>G (leading to the 48ArgGly transition), 4326C>G (432LeuVal), and 4390A>G (453AsnSer) polymorphisms and treatment response, progression-free-survival (PFS) and overall-survival (OS) was estimated using Pearson χ2 test, Kaplan-Meier curves and Log-rank test. RESULTS: Patients carrying the CYP1B1-432ValVal genotype experienced a significantly lower response-rate (P = 0.014), shorter progression-free-survival (P = 0.032) and overall-survival (P < 0.001). Multivariate analyses and correction for multiple comparisons confirmed its prognostic significance for OS. No significant associations were found among other polymorphisms and both response and clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: CYP1B1-4326C>G (432LeuVal) polymorphism emerged as possible predictive marker of response and clinical outcome to docetaxel in CRPC patients and may represent a potential new tool for treatment optimization. Larger prospective trials are warranted to validate these findings, which might be applied to the future practice of CRPC treatment

Ship target velocity estimation with multi-transmitter GNSS-based passive radar exploiting long integration times

This work addresses the estimation of the velocity of ship targets using a passive radar system based on multiple GNSS transmitters of opportunity. The proposed approach exploits bistatic range, Doppler and Doppler-rate measurements obtained by multiple bistatic transmitter-receiver pairs. The presence of the Doppler-rate, usually neglected in conventional estimation methods, is due to the previous detection stages, which are based on Doppler rate-driven migration compensation procedures. The method is presented as a set of closed-form equations derived for a general case applicable to an arbitrary number of transmitters and it is compared to the conventional method that exploits only range and Doppler measurements. Simulated analysis verifies the effectiveness of the proposed approach and demonstrates its robustness against distributed targets. Preliminary experimental results are also provided

Target shape reconstruction from multi-perspective shadows in drone-borne SAR systems

This paper explores the potentials of multi-perspective shadow features in drone-borne SAR images for the reconstruction of targets' shapes. By exploiting target shadows from multiple viewing angles, a comprehensive understanding of targets' morphology can be obtained. This holds substantial promise in potentially deriving three-dimensional measurements encompassing length, width, and height of the targeted objects. The proposed methodology adopts a decentralized approach, involving the extraction and subsequent combination of information from shadowed areas within individual images. This approach is validated through application to experimental data acquired by means of a 24 GHz INRAS radar-equipped drone-borne SAR system. The outcomes show the capability of diverse illumination angles in capturing distinct characteristics of targets, thereby enabling the extraction of the 3D shapes of man-made objects spanning varying dimensional classes

Target shape reconstruction from multi-perspective shadows in drone-borne SAR systems

This paper explores the potentials of multi-perspective shadow features in drone-borne SAR images for the reconstruction of targets' shapes. By exploiting target shadows from multiple viewing angles, a comprehensive understanding of targets' morphology can be obtained. This holds substantial promise in potentially deriving three-dimensional measurements encompassing length, width, and height of the targeted objects. The proposed methodology adopts a decentralized approach, involving the extraction and subsequent combination of information from shadowed areas within individual images. This approach is validated through application to experimental data acquired by means of a 24 GHz INRAS radar-equipped drone-borne SAR system. The outcomes show the capability of diverse illumination angles in capturing distinct characteristics of targets, thereby enabling the extraction of the 3D shapes of man-made objects spanning varying dimensional classes

Advanced ISAR processing applied to VHR SAR data for security applications

This work consolidates the existing results in the field of information extraction from spaceborne SAR imagery based on Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) techniques, as well as enhances the understanding of the phenomenology, the models, the processing algorithms, the applications, and the overall value in security applications. The focus is on ISAR based advanced processing methods to explore the potentialities of very high resolution (VHR) SAR data in a range of security related application domains, including maritime, inland water, and land scenarios