Ricerc@Sapienza

Brain tumors in infants account for less than 10% of all pediatric nervous system tumors. They include tumors diagnosed in fetal age, neonatal age and in the first years of life. Among these, high-grade gliomas (HGGs) are a specific entity with a paradoxical clinical course that sets them apart from their pediatric and adult counterparts. Currently, surgery represents the main therapeutic strategy in the management of these tumors. Chemotherapy does not have a well-defined role whilst radiotherapy is rarely performed, considering its late effects.

Background: Hypnosis is a technique that could aid awake surgery protocols. The aim of the present study is to describe the results of a preliminary experience of a cohort of patients operated on with an original protocol of hypnosis-aided awake surgery (HAS). Methods: All patients were operated on with the aid of HAS and their data were retrospectively reviewed.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and deadly brain tumor, with low disease-free period even after surgery and combined radio and chemotherapies. Among the factors contributing to rapid tumor growth in the brain are the elevated proliferation and invasion rate, and the ability to induce a local immunosuppressive environment. The intermediate-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel KCa3.1 is expressed on glioblastoma cells and in tumor-infiltrating cells. In tumor cells, the functional expression of KCa3.1 is important to modulate cell invasion and proliferation.

Extracellular-released vesicles (EVs), such as microvesicles (MV) and exosomes (Exo)
provide a new type of inter-cellular communication, directly transferring a ready to use
box of information, consisting of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. In the nervous
system, EVs participate to neuron-glial cross-talk, a bidirectional communication
important to preserve brain homeostasis and, when dysfunctional, involved in several
CNS diseases. We investigated whether microglia-derived EVs could be used to transfer

Purpose Beta-particle radioguided tumor resection may potentially overcome the limitations of conventional gamma-ray guided surgery by eliminating, or at least minimizing, the confounding effect of counts contributed by activity in adjacent normal tissues. The current study evaluates the clinical feasibility of this approach for a variety of radionuclides. Nowadays, the only ?- radioisotope suited to radioguided surgery is 90Y. Here, we study the ?- probe prototype capability to different radionuclides chosen among those used in nuclear medicine.