Ricerc@Sapienza

Osteosarcoma is the most common paediatric primary non-hematopoietic bone tumor; the survival is related to the response to chemotherapy and development of metastases. KMT2C is a chromatin-modifying and remodelling protein and its expression has never been studied in osteosarcoma. The aim of this study was to understand the role of KMT2C in the osteosarcoma carcinogenesis and metastatic progression to identify a new molecular target and to provide new therapeutic approach.

The possibility that the use of hormonal contraceptives may increase the risk of breast cancer has been raised since many years. In the past this hypothesis has been dismissed on the basis that available data were generally derived from “old” studies in which relatively high hormone doses had been used. The recent publication of two studies that analysed data from women receiving low-dose hormonal contraception and showed a statistically significant increase in breast cancer contradicts this reassuring belief.

Introduction: Diet may influence various aspects of human health. In fact, it is well known that diet can favour or not the development of various human pathologies, like diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolaemia. Interestingly, diet has an influence in cancer development too (e.g., this relation has been studied for pancreatic, colonic, gastric, and breast cancers). Between the mechanisms that could explain this relation, there is epigenetic.

Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is the most common glioma in pediatric patients and occurs in different locations. Chromosomal alterations are mostly located at chromosome 7q34 comprising the BRAF oncogene with consequent activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Although genetic and epigenetic alterations characterizing PA from different localizations have been reported, the role of epigenetic alterations in PA development is still not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether distinctive methylation patterns may define biologically relevant groups of PAs.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents one of the main frequent and aggressive primary brain neoplasms among adults worldwide. Despite a first-line multimodal treatment, including radical surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy with concomitant temozolomide-based chemotherapy, GBM prognosis continues to be unfavourable. During this decade, different research groups have explored immune check-point inhibitors role in order to improve response to therapy and subsequently prolong survival rate.

Tumors of the parapharyngeal space are rare entities that represent less than 1 % of all head and neck neoplasms. Parapharingeal masses may represent a relevant differential diagnostic challenge for clinicians. The common benign character of these conditions does not exclude malignancy, such as in this case in which malignant transformation was observed.

A summary of the First Signature Series Event, "Advancements in Cellular Therapies and Regenerative Medicine for Digestive Diseases," held on May 3, 2017, in London, United Kingdom, is presented. Twelve speakers from three continents covered major topics in the areas of cellular therapy and regenerative medicine applied to liver and gastrointestinal medicine as well as to diabetes mellitus.

Lenvatinib is an oral, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of VEGFR1-VEGFR3, FGFR1-FGFR4, PDGFRα, RET and v-kit Hardy-Zuckerman 4 feline sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KIT) signaling networks involved in tumor angiogenesis. We have evaluated the antitumor activity of lenvatinib in primary anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) cells, in the human cell line 8305C (undifferentiated thyroid cancer) and in an ATC-cell line (AF). The AF cell line was obtained from the primary ATC cultures and was the one that grew over 50 passages.