Ricerc@Sapienza

Background. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. The treatment choice for advanced stage of lung cancer may depend on histotype, performance status (PS), age, and comorbidities. In the present study, we focused on the effect of metronomic vinorelbine treatment in elderly patients with advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods. From January 2016 to December 2016, 44 patients affected by non- small cell lung cancer referred to our oncology day hospital were progressively analyzed.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with no recognized clinical prognostic factor. Creatinine kinase (CK) increase in these patients is already described with conflicting results on prognosis and survival. In 126 ALS patients who were fast or slow disease progressors, CK levels were assayed for 16 months every 4 months in an observational case-control cohort study with prospective data collection conducted in Italy.

BCR/ABL1-like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a subgroup of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that occurs within cases without recurrent molecular rearrangements. Gene expression profiling (GEP) can identify these cases but it is expensive and not widely available.

No validated prognostic tool is available for predicting overall survival (OS) of patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (WDNETs). This study, conducted in three independent cohorts of patients from five different European countries, aimed to develop and validate a classification prognostic score for OS in patients with stage IV WDNETs.

The recent recognition that grade 3 (G3) neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) can be divided into two different categories according to the histopathological differentiation, that is G3 neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and G3 neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) has generated a lot of interest concerning not only the diagnosis, but also the differential management of such new group of NENs. However, several issues need to be fully clarified in order to put G3 NETs and G3 NECs in the right place.

BACKGROUND: The optimal management of duodenal neuroendocrine neoplasms (dNENs) is unclear, and endoscopic resection is increasingly performed instead of surgery.
METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of dNENs, managed at five Italian tertiary referral Centers in Italy.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PanNETs) represent an uncommon type of pancreatic neoplasm, whose incidence is increasing worldwide. As per exocrine pancreatic cancer, a relationship seems to exist between PanNETs and glycaemic alterations. Diabetes mellitus (DM) or impaired glucose tolerance often occurs in PanNET patients as a consequence of hormonal hypersecretion by the tumour, specifically affecting glucose metabolism, or due to tumour mass effects.

Owing to the heterogeneity of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs), the availability of
reliable circulating markers is critical for improving diagnostics, prognostic stratification,
follow-up and definition of treatment strategy. This review is focused on chromogranin A
(CgA), a hydrophilic glycoprotein present in large dense core vesicles of neuroendocrine
cells. Despite being long identified as the most useful NEN-related circulating marker,
clinical application of CgA is controversial. CgA assays still lack standardization, thus

Background: Malignant pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (MPP) are characterized by prognostic heterogeneity. Our objective was to look for prognostic parameters of overall survival (OS) in MPP patients. Patients and Methods: Retrospective multicenter study of MPP characterized by a neck-thoraco-abdomino-pelvic CT or MRI at the time of malignancy diagnosis in European centers between 1998 and 2010. Results: One hundred sixty-nine patients from 18 European centers were included.

Background: Although prognosis of NENs is affected by several features including tumour burden, the specific role of this factor in pancreatic NENs (PanNENs) and gastrointestinal NENs (GI NENs) is not well established. Aim: To compare the prognostic role of tumour burden in PanNENs and GI NENs. Patients and methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of stage IV PanNENs and GI NENs. Tumours were classified based on liver tumour volume (<25% or >25%). Overall survival as assessed by Kaplan-Meier curves, and Cox proportional hazards method was used to perform risk factor analysis.