45 research outputs found
Expression of hormone receptors in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
Hormone receptors play an important role in many types of cancers. Alongside factors associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, hormonal receptors may impact the tumorigenesis of oropharyngeal cancer. This study consists of 199 consecutive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) patients diagnosed and treated with a curative intent. We examined androgen (AR), estrogen (ER; both alpha and beta), and progesterone receptor (PR) expressions using immunohistochemistry comparing tumor and patient characteristics. AR was expressed in 16%, PR in 27% and ER-beta in 63% of the tumors. HPV- and p16-positive tumors expressed more AR and less PR than their negative counterparts. High PR expression was associated with poor disease-specific and locoregional recurrence-free survival. AR, PR, and ER-beta are expressed in OPSCC, and AR and PR expressions are associated with HPV and p16 status. Furthermore, PR appears to have prognostic significance. This may allow us to investigate the role of anti-hormone receptors in the treatment of OPSCC.Peer reviewe
Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version
The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version
Temporal variability and effect of environmental variables on airborne bacterial communities in an urban area of Northern Italy
Despite airborne microorganisms representing a relevant
fraction of atmospheric suspended particles, only a small
amount of information is currently available on their abundance
and diversity and very few studies have investigated the environmental
factors influencing the structure of airborne bacterial
communities. In this work, we used quantitative PCR and Illumina
technology to provide a thorough description of airborne
bacterial communities in the urban area of Milan (Italy). Forty
samples were collected in 10-day sampling sessions, with one
sessionper season.Themeanbacterialabundancewasabout104
ribosomal operons perm3 of air andwas lower inwinter than in
the other seasons. Communitieswere dominated by Actinobacteridae,
Clostridiales, Sphingobacteriales and fewproteobacterial
orders (Burkholderiales, Rhizobiales, Sphingomonadales
andPseudomonadales).Chloroplastswere abundant in all samples.
Ahigher abundanceof Actinobacteridae,which are typical
soil-inhabiting bacteria, and a lower abundance of chloroplasts in samples collected on cold days were observed. The variation
in community composition observed within seasons was comparable
to that observed between seasons, thus suggesting that
airborne bacterial communities showlarge temporal variability,
even between consecutive days. The structure of airborne bacterial
communities therefore suggests that soil and plants are the
sources which contribute most to the airborne communities of
Milan atmosphere, but the structure of the bacterial community
seems to depend mainly on the source of bacteria that predominates
in a given period of time
A 30-Day-Ahead Forecast Model for Grass Pollen in North London, United Kingdom
A 30-day ahead forecast method has been developed for grass pollen at north London. The total period of the grass pollen season is covered by eight multiple regression models, each covering a 10-day period running consecutively from 21st May to 8th August. This means that three models were used for each 30-day forecast. The forecast models were produced using grass pollen and environmental data from 1961-1999 and tested on data from 2000 and 2002. Model accuracy was judged in two ways: the number of times the forecast model was able to successfully predict the severity (relative to the 1961-1999 dataset as a whole) of grass pollen counts in each of the eight forecast periods on a scale of one to four; and the number of times the forecast model was able to predict whether grass pollen counts were higher or lower than the mean. The models achieved 62.5% accuracy in both assessment years when predicting the relative severity of grass pollen counts on a scale of one to four, which equates to six of the eight 10-day periods being forecast correctly. The models attained 87.5% and 100% accuracy in 2000 and 2002 respectively when predicting whether grass pollen counts would be higher or lower than the mean. Attempting to predict pollen counts during distinct 10-day periods throughout the grass pollen season is a novel approach. The models also employed original methodology in the use of winter averages of the North Atlantic Oscillation to forecast 10-day means of allergenic pollen counts