Polydeoxyribonucleotide Dermal Infiltration in Male Genital Lichen Sclerosus: Adjuvant Effects during Topical Therapy

Background. Lichen sclerosus (LS) is an autoimmune inflammatory skin disease that leads to tissue sclerosis. Actually, the first-line treatment consists of local steroid as clobetasol propionate (CP). Polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) has demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects through the reduction of cytokine production and growth stimulation of fibroblast. Objective. To evaluate the efficacy of intradermal administration of PDRN in male patients suffering from genital lichen sclerosus in addition to topical 0.05% CP, as compared to administering 0.05% CP without PDRN injection. Patients/Methods. A group of male patients (n = 28; aged 25 to 65) suffering from LS were observed during topical therapy or subdermal in addition to topical therapy. Disease activity at baseline was evaluated on Investigator’s Global Assessment (IGA) and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). We used polydeoxyribonucleotide in a commercial preparation for human use and a topical CP emulsion. Results. After therapy, in all group A patients there has been a regression of most of clinical pathological signs, while there has been a moderate improvement in all group B patients. Conclusions. On site intradermal administration of PDRN, associated with CP 0.05% cream, seemed to be associated with a clinical improvement of lichen sclerosus better than CP used in single therapy

Clinical utility of continuing trastuzumab beyond brain progression in HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer

No abstract availabl

Circulating Tumor Cells Identify Patients with Super-High-Risk Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: Updated Outcome Analysis of a Prospective Single-Center Trial

Clinical behavior of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is largely unpredictable, and even patients treated according to European Association of Urology recommendations have a heterogeneous prognosis. High-grade T1 (HGT1) bladder cancer is the highest-risk subtype of NMIBC, with an almost 40% rate of recurrence and 20% of progression at 5 years. Nomograms predicting risk of recurrence, progression, and cancer-specific survival (CSS) are not available specifically within HGT1 bladder cancer, and the identification of robust prognostic biomarkers to better guide therapeutic strategies in this subgroup of patients is of paramount importance. Strategies to identify putative biomarkers in liquid biopsies from blood and urine collected from patients with bladder cancer have been intensively studied in the last few years

Impact of gefitinib ('Iressa') treatment on the quality of life of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Purpose: Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have a short life expectancy; therefore, in addition to increasing their survival, improving their quality of life (QoL) is also an important treatment goal. Methods: We evaluated the QoL of patients with advanced NSCLC who were unfit to receive chemotherapy, failed to respond or progress following prior chemotherapy, who received subsequent treatment with gefitinib ('Iressa') on a compassionate use basis, using a standard QoL questionnaire, (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and the related lung cancer-specific module QLQ-LC13. Results: Analysis of the functional scales showed a trend towards improvement for role, emotional and cognitive scales, while a substantial stability was seen for general QoL scale. Analysis of the symptoms scales of QLQ-C30, showed a trend towards improvement for fatigue, dyspnoea, insomnia, and constipation, after one month of therapy. Fifty-six of the 57 patients were considered evaluable for response. One patient evidenced a partial response (patient is still on response), 29 patients had stable disease for a median duration of 5 months (range 4-7 months), and 26 patients progressed. Conclusions: After treatment with Gefitinib, we observed maintenance of QoL in a group of patients with poor prognosis that would be expected to have a worsening QoL. Furthermore important symptoms like dyspnoea fatigue and pain in other parts, that usually afflict patients with NSCLC, showed a trend toward improvement after only one month of therapy

Adherence to dietary guidelines (DG) and body weight change (BWC) in early-stage breast cancer (EBC): A prospective trial in patients submitted to nutrition evidence-based educational intervention

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A phase II study of cetuximab/irinotecan in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer: Predictive value of early specific toxicities

Background: This study was designed to evaluate the predictive value of early specific toxicities on efficacy of weekly irinotecan/cetuximab administered as salvage therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) refractory to oxaliplatin and irinotecan. Patients and Methods: Seventy patients received a regimen composed of weekly irinotecan 125 mg/m(2) as a 1-hour intravenous infusion and cetuximab 400 mg/m(2) infused over 2 hours as the initial dose and 250 mg/m(2) infused over 1 hour for subsequent administrations. A single treatment cycle was composed of 4 weekly irinotecan infusions followed by 2 weeks of rest.The predictive value of adverse events (AEs) attributable to cetuximab (rash) and major toxicities attributable to irinotecan (gastrointestinal [GI] and hematologic) were observed after the first cycle of treatment and, therefore, correlated to activity and efficacy of cetuximab and weekly irinotecan. Results: Sixty-six of 70 patients received >= 1 cycle of chemotherapy and were therefore evaluable for response. Overall, toxicity observed was generally mild and manageable. According to an intent-to-treat analysis, a partial response was exhibited in 15.7% of patients, with a median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival time of 4 months and 9 months, respectively. As expected, PFS (P =.01) and median survival (P =.04) correlated strongly with the presence and severity of the rash. Surprisingly, the presence of at least moderate hematologic and GI toxicity was associated with improved PFS (P =.03). Conclusion: Our data suggest that irinotecan-induced AEs might predict a better outcome in advanced CRC.This finding would identify a different subset of patients-those likely to benefit from a renewed sensitivity to irinotecan induced by cetuximab

Biofilm is a major virulence determinant in bacterial colonization of chronic skin ulcers independently from the multidrug resistant phenotype

Bacterial biofilm is a major factor in delayed wound healing and high levels of biofilm production have been repeatedly described in multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs). Nevertheless, a quantitative correlation between biofilm production and the profile of antimicrobial drug resistance in delayed wound healing remains to be determined. Microbial identification, antibiotic susceptibility and biofilm production were assessed in 135 clinical isolates from 87 patients. Gram-negative bacteria were the most represented microorganisms (60.8%) with MDROs accounting for 31.8% of the total isolates. Assessment of biofilm production revealed that 80% of the strains were able to form biofilm. A comparable level of biofilm production was found with both MDRO and not-MDRO with no significant differences between groups. All the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and 80% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa MDR strains were found as moderate/high biofilm producers. Conversely, less than 17% of Klebsiella pneumoniae extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), Escherichia coli-ESBL and Acinetobacter baumannii were moderate/high biofilm producers. Notably, those strains classified as non-biofilm producers, were always associated with biofilm producer bacteria in polymicrobial colonization. This study shows that biofilm producers were present in all chronic skin ulcers, suggesting that biofilm represents a key virulence determinant in promoting bacterial persistence and chronicity of ulcerative lesions independently from the MDRO phenotype

The long-term prognostic value of survivin expressing circulating tumor cells in patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC)

Objectives Long-term follow-up study to evaluate the impact on disease-free survival and cancer-specific survival of survivin expression in tissue and CTCs from T1G3 bladder cancer patients. Patients and methods The study was conducted using tumor tissue and blood samples from 54 patients with a primary diagnosis of T1G3 NMIBC. Survivin was evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in tumor tissues. CTCs were isolated from blood by CELLection ™ Dynabeads (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Cells were lysed and cDNA was synthesized and analysed for the expression of CD45, CK8 and survivin. The endpoints of this long-termanalysis were disease-free survival, DFS and cancer-specific survival, CSS. Results Here, we report that, at 9 years of median followup, disease-free survival and cancer-specific survival are both significantly influenced by the expression of survivin in tumor tissue (p = 0.006), by the presence of CTCs (p < 0.0001) and by the expression of survivin in CTCs (p < 0.0001). Conclusion The statistically significant impact of survivin expressing CTCs on cancer-specific survival that we observed might be interpreted as the result of the persistence of a subpopulation of highlander cells in the blood of T1G3 bladder patients over time