Roberto Di Cicilia

Prevalence of malnutrition in patients at first medical oncology visit: the PreMiO study

Background In cancer patients, malnutrition is associated with treatment toxicity, complications, reduced physical functioning, and decreased survival. The Prevalence of Malnutrition in Oncology (PreMiO) study identified malnutrition or its risk among cancer patients making their first medical oncology visit. Innovatively, oncologists, not nutritionists, evaluated the nutritional status of the patients in this study. Methods PreMiO was a prospective, observational study conducted at 22 medical oncology centers across Italy. For inclusion, adult patients (>18 years) had a solid tumor diagnosis, were treatment-naive, and had a life expectancy >3 months. Malnutrition was identified by the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), appetite status with a visual analog scale (VAS), and appetite loss with a modified version of Anorexia-Cachexia Subscale (AC/S-12) of the Functional Assessment of Anorexia-Cachexia Therapy (FAACT). Findings Of patients enrolled (N=1,952), 51% had nutritional impairment; 9% were overtly malnourished, and 43% were at risk for malnutrition. Severity of malnutrition was positively correlated with the stage of cancer. Over 40% of patients were experiencing anorexia, as reported in the VAS and FAACT questionnaire. During the prior six months, 64% of patients lost weight (1–10 kg). Interpretation Malnutrition, anorexia, and weight loss are common in cancer patients, even at their first visit to a medical oncology center.

Venous Thromboembolism and Port-Related Thrombosis in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients: A Monocenter Experience

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) may occur during the natural history of neoplastic disease and is a common cause of mortality and morbidity in cancer patients. Major risk factors for VTE in cancer patients include surgery, immobilization, hospitalization, and the administration of granulopoietic and/or erythropoietic (stimulatory) agents. Chemotherapy is a supplementary independent risk factor for VTE and the use of central venous catheters (CVC) in clinical practice has increased the risk of thromboembolic events. We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate CVC-related thrombosis and the VTE rate in 145 consecutive metastatic colorectal cancer patients. We observed only 2 cases of symptomatic CVC- related thrombotic events (1.38%) and 10 cases of thromboembolic events (6.9%) in our series. Only surgery for metastases was found to be significantly related to the development of VTE, with an incidence of 16.1% vs. 4.4 in patients who did not undergo surgery (p = 0.037). In addition, a history of VTE seems to be a supplementary risk factor for CVC-related thrombosis (p = 0.055).

Unusual finding of benign Abrikossoff tumor by F-18 FDG-PET mimicking melanoma recurrence.

Granular cell tumor of Abrikossoff is a rare neoplasm that may occur in a wide variety of cutaneous and visceral sites. Granular cell tumor generally shows benign behavior. However, malignant outcome with metastatic spread has also been reported. Until now, no data were available on the most useful imaging approach for diagnosis and staging. We present a case of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in Abrikossoff tumor, suggesting that F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography may have a potential role in the management of this neoplasm.

Solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura: a case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura are rare and slow-growing neoplasms originating from the mesenchymal tissue underlying the mesothelial layer of the pleura. These tumors may have an unpredictable clinical course. Most cases occur in the sixth or seventh decades of life with no gender predilection, and more than 80% of cases are benign. The predominant clinical symptoms and signs are dyspnea, cough, chest pain, finger clubbing and hypoglycemia. However, because many patients are asymptomatic, the incidence rates are affected by the likelihood of its incidental detection, often through medical imaging of the chest. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice and is usually curative, even though local recurrence can occur many years after an adequate resection. METHODS We reviewed the literature by performing a computerized search of MEDLINE, CANCERLIT and Embase with the terms fibrous tumor, pleura, surgery, immunohistochemical analysis. Articles and s were also identified by back-referencing from other relevant papers. RESULTS The clinical, radiological and pathological features of a 48-year-old woman with a primary solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura are reviewed and a literature search for other reported cases has been performed. CONCLUSIONS Although localized fibrous tumors of the pleura are considered histologically benign, there is a risk of recurrence and malignant transformation. Complete surgical resection is mandatory and long-term clinical and radiological follow-up is indicated in all patients. For malignant cases complete surgical resection may not be adequate and studies are needed to define the role of preoperative and postoperative systemic treatment. Diagnosis is very difficult in limited samples such as fine-needle aspiration or needle-core tissue biopsy, and immunohistochemical analysis may be useful to differentiate solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura from mesothelioma and other similar tumors.

Role of Guided - Fine Needle Biopsy of the Pancreatic Lesion

A variety of uncommon types of pancreatic carcinoma have been described, including acinar, adenosquamous, anaplastic, papillary, mucinous and microadenocarcinomas, each of which composes less than 5% of the total. All of these have similarly poor prognoses and are treated in a similar fashion. Also uncommon are mucinous cystic neoplasms (cystadenoma/cystadenocarcinoma) of the pancreas, which occur most frequently in the middle-aged women, and these are tipically located in the tail of the pancreas.