A Geological Itinerary Through the Southern Apennine Thrust-Belt (Basilicata—Southern Italy)

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An unusual presentation of multiple cavitated lung metastases from colon carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Consolidation with or without ground-glass opacity is the typical radiologic finding of lung metastases of adenocarcinoma from the gastrointestinal tract. Lung excavated metastases from gastrointestinal carcinoma are very rare.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>The authors describe an unusual presentation of multiple cavitated lung metastases from colon adenocarcinoma and discuss the outcome of a patient. The absence both of symptoms and other disease localizations, the investigations related to different diagnostic hypotheses and the empirical treatments caused a delay in correct diagnosis. Only a transparietal biopsy revealed the neoplastic origin of nodules.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This report demonstrates that although lung excavated metastases are described in literature, initial failure to reach a diagnosis is common. We would like to alert clinicians and radiologists to the possibility of unusual atypical features of pulmonary metastases from colon adenocarcinoma.</p

Modulation of 5-fluorouracil as adjuvant systemic chemotherapy in colorectal cancer: the IGCS-COL multicentre, randomised, phase III study

The aims of this multicentre, randomised phase III trial were to evaluate: ( 1) the role of levamisol (LEV); and ( 2) the role of folinic acid ( FA), added to 5-fluorouracil (5FU) in the adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer. Patients with histologically proven, radically resected stage II or III colon or rectal cancer were eligible. The study had a 2 x 2 factorial design with four treatment arms: ( a) 5FU alone, (b) 5FU+LEV, ( c) 5FU+FA, ( d) 5FU+LEV+FA, and two planned comparisons, testing the role of LEV and of FA, respectively. From March 1991, to September 1998, 1327 patients were randomised. None of the two comparisons resulted in a significant disease-free (DFS) or overall (OAS) survival advantage. The hazard ratio (HR) of relapse was 0.89 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.73 - 1.09) for patients receiving FA and 0.99 ( 95% CI 0.80 - 1.21) for those receiving LEV; corresponding HRs of death were 1.02 ( 95% CI: 0.80 - 1.30) and 0.94 ( 95% CI 0.73 - 1.20). Nonhaematological toxicity ( all grade vomiting, diarrhoea, mucositis, congiuntivitis, skin, fever and fatigue) was significantly worse with FA, while all other toxicities were similar. In the present trial, there was no evidence that the addition of FA or LEV significantly prolongs DFS and OAS of radically resected colorectal cancer patients

Tectonic evolution of the ‘Liguride’ accretionary wedge in the Cilento area, southern Italy: A record of early Apennine geodynamics

International audienceThe early stages of southern Apennine development have been unraveled by integrating the available stratigraphic record provided by synorogenic strata (of both foredeep and wedge-top basin environments) with new structural data on the Liguride accretionary wedge cropping out in the Cilento area, southern Italy. Our results indicate that the final oceanic subduction stages and early deformation of the distal part of the Apulian continental margin were controlled by dominant NW-SE shortening. Early Miocene subduction-accretion, subsequent wedge emplacement on top of the Apulian continental margin and onset of footwall imbrication involving detached Apulian continental margin carbonate successions were followed by extensional deformation of the previously 'obducted' accretionary wedge. Wedge thinning also enhanced the development of accommodation space, filled by the dominantly siliciclastic Cilento Group deposits. The accretionary wedge units and the unconformably overlying wedge-top basin sediments experienced renewed NW-SE shortening immediately following the deposition of the Cilento Group (reaching the early Tortonian), confirming that the preceding wedge thinning represented an episode of synorogenic extension occurring within the general framework of NW-SE convergence. The documented Early to the Late Miocene steps of southern Apennine development are clearly distinct with respect to the subsequent (late Tortonian-Quaternary) stages of fold and thrust belt evolution coeval with Tyrrhenian back-arc extension, which were characterized by NE-directed thrusting in the southern Apennines