Quality assurance in breast cancer treatment

Il carcinoma della mammella è la neoplasia con incidenza più elevata nel sesso femminile. Il Parlamento Europeo ha dichiarato prioritario nella politica sanitaria degli Stati membri la lotta al carcinoma della mammella ed aveva invitato tutti gli Stati membri a organizzare entro il 2016 una rete di “Breast Units”, ovvero centri di senologia che devono attenersi ad un programma codificato di controllo di qualità, cioè rispondere a una serie di indicatori conformi alle Linee Guida Europee. Scopo del progetto di ricerca è stato valutare gli outcomes degli indicatori definiti mandatori dalle linee guida europee presso la Breast Unit del Policlinico di Sant’Orsola di Bologna diretto dal Prof. Taffurelli negli anni 2014/2016. Delle pazienti sono state anche valutati aspetti estetici e funzionali ed il follow-up ad oggi. Avere strumenti ed indicatori validati, riproducibili e misurabili consente, in centri certificati e dedicati alla patologia mammaria di migliorarsi qualora tali obiettivi non fossero raggiunti, garantendo i più elevati standard di cura alle pazienti affette da patologia mammaria.Breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence in females. The European Parliament has indicated breast cancer a priority in the health policy of European member States and invited them to organize a network of "Breast Units". It had to be effective from 2016. Breast units have to follow a codified program of quality control, responding to a set of indicators that comply with the European Guidelines. The aim of the research project was to evaluate the outcomes of the indicators defined “mandatory” by the EUSOMA at the Breast Unit of Policlinico di Sant' Orsola in Bologna directed by Prof. Taffurelli in the years 2014/2016. Also patient’s aesthetic results, functional aspects and follow-up were analyzed. Having validated, reproducible and measurable tools and indicators allows, in breast centers, to improve if these objectives are not achieved, guaranteeing the highest standards of care for patients suffering from breast patholog

Using Pre-Trained Language Models for Producing Counter Narratives Against Hate Speech: a Comparative Study

In this work, we present an extensive study on the use of pre-trained language models for the task of automatic Counter Narrative (CN) generation to fight online hate speech in English. We first present a comparative study to determine whether there is a particular Language Model (or class of LMs) and a particular decoding mechanism that are the most appropriate to generate CNs. Findings show that autoregressive models combined with stochastic decodings are the most promising. We then investigate how an LM performs in generating a CN with regard to an unseen target of hate. We find out that a key element for successful `out of target' experiments is not an overall similarity with the training data but the presence of a specific subset of training data, i.e. a target that shares some commonalities with the test target that can be defined a-priori. We finally introduce the idea of a pipeline based on the addition of an automatic post-editing step to refine generated CNs.Comment: To appear in "Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL): Findings

Ductal invasive carcinoma arising within atypical microglandular adenosis in a patient with BRCA-1 mutation: A case report

Abstract Microglandular adenosis (MGA) of the breast is a benign lesion that may mimic invasive carcinoma and which has been proposed to be a potential precursor of a well defined subset of triple-negative and basal-like breast carcinomas, characterized by specific expression of both basal and luminal markers (positive for EGFr and luminal cytokeratins such as CK 8/18, negative for high molecular weight cytokeratins such as CK 5/6), with a crucial role played by p53 mutation as "driver mutation" in the multistep model of cancerization. When an invasive carcinoma arises in a background of MGA, it is possible to identify a clear multistep transition from conventional MGA to atypical MGA (AMGA), Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) arising within AMGA and invasive carcinoma. This is the first histological case report of an invasive carcinoma arising within MGA and AMGA in a patient carrying a germline BRCA-1 mutation, recognized as one of the most important genetic alterations correlated with the development of triple-negative carcinoma

Bovine neutrophil chemotaxis to Listeria monocytogenes in neurolisteriosis depends on microglia-released rather than bacterial factors.

BACKGROUND Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a bacterial pathogen of major concern for humans and ruminants due to its neuroinvasive potential and its ability to cause deadly encephalitis (neurolisteriosis). On one hand, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) are key players in the defense against Lm, but on the other hand intracerebral infiltration with PMN is associated with significant neural tissue damage. Lm-PMN interactions in neurolisteriosis are poorly investigated, and factors inducing PMN chemotaxis to infectious foci containing Lm in the central nervous system (CNS) remain unidentified. METHODS In this study, we assessed bovine PMN chemotaxis towards Lm and supernatants of infected endogenous brain cell populations in ex vivo chemotaxis assays, to identify chemotactic stimuli for PMN chemotaxis towards Lm in the brain. In addition, microglial secretion of IL-8 was assessed both ex vivo and in situ. RESULTS Our data show that neither Lm cell wall components nor intact bacteria elicit chemotaxis of bovine PMN ex vivo. Moreover, astrocytes and neural cells fail to induce bovine PMN chemotaxis upon infection. In contrast, supernatant from Lm infected microglia readily induced chemotaxis of bovine PMN. Microglial expression and secretion of IL-8 was identified during early Lm infection in vitro and in situ, although IL-8 blocking with a specific antibody could not abrogate PMN chemotaxis towards Lm infected microglial supernatant. CONCLUSIONS These data provide evidence that host-derived rather than bacterial factors trigger PMN chemotaxis to bacterial foci in the CNS, that microglia have a primary role as initiators of bovine PMN chemotaxis into the brain during neurolisteriosis and that blockade of these factors could be a therapeutic target to limit intrathecal PMN chemotaxis and PMN associated damage in neurolisteriosis

Melatonin and Vitamin D Interfere with the Adipogenic Fate of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) represent one of the cellular populations resident in adipose tissue. They can be recruited under certain stimuli and committed to become preadipocytes, and then mature adipocytes. Controlling stem cell differentiation towards the adipogenic phenotype could have a great impact on future drug development aimed at counteracting fat depots. Stem cell commitment can be influenced by different molecules, such as melatonin, which we have previously shown to be an osteogenic inducer. Here, we aimed at evaluating the effects elicited by melatonin, even in the presence of vitamin D, on ADSC adipogenesis assessed in a specific medium. The transcription of specific adipogenesis orchestrating genes, such as aP2, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor \u3b3 (PPAR-\u3b3), and that of adipocyte-specific genes, including lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and acyl-CoA thioesterase 2 (ACOT2), was significantly inhibited in cells that had been treated in the presence of melatonin and vitamin D, alone or in combination. Protein content and lipid accumulation confirmed a reduction in adipogenesis in ADSCs that had been grown in adipogenic conditions, but in the presence of melatonin and/or vitamin D. Our findings indicate the role of melatonin and vitamin D in deciding stem cell fate, and disclose novel therapeutic approaches against fat depots

Neurological morphofunctional differentiation induced by REAC technology in PC12: a neuro protective model for Parkinson's disease

Research for the use of physical means, in order to induce cell differentiation for new therapeutic strategies, is one of the most interesting challenges in the field of regenerative medicine, and then in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s disease (PD) included. The aim of this work is to verify the effect of the radio electric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) technology on the PC12 rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line, as they display metabolic features of PD. PC12 cells were cultured with a REAC regenerative tissue optimization treatment (TO-RGN) for a period ranging between 24 and 192 hours. Gene expression analysis of specific neurogenic genes, as neurogenin-1, beta3-tubulin and Nerve growth factor, together with the immunostaining analysis of the specific neuronal protein beta3-tubulin and tyrosine hydroxylase, shows that the number of cells committed toward the neurogenic phenotype was significantly higher in REAC treated cultures, as compared to control untreated cells. Moreover, MTT and Trypan blue proliferation assays highlighted that cell proliferation was significantly reduced in REAC TO-RGN treated cells. These results open new perspectives in neurodegenerative diseases treatment, particularly in PD. Further studies will be needed to better address the therapeutic potential of the REAC technology

Breast Melanoma Metastases: Do We Know Enough? A very Rare Case with a Poor Prognosis: Case Report

The incidence of malignant melanoma (MM) is increasing especially in the western population; in Europe, the incidence is less than 10-20 new cases of melanoma per 100,000 inhabitants..