Recently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many guidelines and anti-contagion strategies continue to report unclear information about the persistence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the ...environment. This certainly generates insecurity and fear in people, with an important psychological component that is not to be underestimated at this stage of the pandemic. The purpose of this article is to highlight all the sources currently present in the literature concerning the persistence of the different coronaviruses in the environment as well as in medical and dental settings. As this was a current study, there are still not many sources in the literature, and scientific strategies are moving towards therapy and diagnosis, rather than knowing the characteristics of the virus. Such an article could be an aid to summarize virus features and formulate new guidelines and anti-spread strategies.
We aimed to test whether the prognostic value of 18 F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) ...extends to the estimation of systemic treatment response duration.
mCRPC patients submitted to FDG-PET/CT in four Italian centers from 2005 to 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. Clinical and biochemical data at the time of imaging were collected, and SUV max of the hottest lesion, total metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were calculated. The correlation between PET- and biochemical-derived parameters with Overall Survival (OS) was analysed. The prediction of treatment response duration was assessed in the subgroup submitted to FDG-PET/CT in the six months preceding Chemotherapy (namely Docetaxel or Cabazitaxel, 24 patients) or Androgen-Receptor Targeted Agents (ARTA, namely Abiraterone or Enzalutamide, 20 patients) administration.
We enrolled 114 mCRPC patients followed-up for a median interval lasting 15 months. While at univariate analysis, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), MTV, and TLG were associated with OS, at the multivariate Cox regression analysis, the sole MTV could independently predict OS (p < 0.0001). In the subgroup submitted to FDG-PET/CT before the systemic treatment initiation, PSA and TLG could also predict treatment response duration independently (p < 0.05). Of note, while PSA could not indicate the best treatment choice, lower TLG was associated with higher success rates for ARTA but had no impact on chemotherapy efficacy.
FDG-PET/CT's prognostic value extends to predicting treatment response duration in mCRPC, thus potentially guiding the systemic treatment selection.
Aim
Total thyroidectomy and risk-adapted 131-radioiodine therapy (RaIT) are the treatments of choice in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients. The response to treatments is assessed ...6–12 months after RaIT. However, thyroglobulin (Tg) values obtained just before RaIT also provide reliable informations on patients’outcome. As available data were mostly obtained in hypothyroid status, we evaluated the predictive role of preablation-Tg in patients underwent RaIT after rhTSH stimulation.
Material and methods
We enrolled 299 low-to-intermediate risk DTC patients underwent rhTSH-stimulated RaIT (standard protocol). Serum Tg levels were measured before rhTSH administration (basal Tg), before RaIT (early-stimulated Tg), and 2 days after RaIT (late-stimulated Tg). The early response assessment was done 12 months after RaIT according to 2015 American Thyroid Association (2015 ATA) criteria.
Results
Most patients (277/299, 92.6%) had an excellent response (ER) to RaIT, while 15/299 (5.1%) and 7/299 (2.3%) patients showed biochemical incomplete/indeterminate response or persistent structural disease, respectively. At receiver operating characteristic analysis, the optimal cutoff to predict ER was set at 1.55 (AUC = 0.792), 2.6 (AUC = 0.931), and 4.9 (AUC = 0.874) ng/mL, for basal, early-, and late-stimulated Tg, respectively. The overall sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for basal, early-, and late-stimulated Tg were 50%, 96.7%, 93.3%, 55%, and 96.1%; 90.9%, 84.5%, 84.9%, 31.7%, and 99.1%; and 90.9%, 71.8%, 73.2%, 20.4%, and 99%, respectively. In univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, early-stimulated Tg cutoff resulted as an independent prognostic marker for predicting ER regardless of gender, age, histotype, histological variant, tumor size, risk classification, and stage of disease.
Conclusion
Early-stimulated Tg is a reliable diagnostic tool for predicting the response to primary treatment of DTC.
Purpose
To assess and compare clinical outcomes and costs, to the Italian healthcare system, of three therapeutic options approved in the management of adult patients with gastro-enteropancreatic ...neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs).
Methods
We compared the efficacy, safety, and costs of 177LuLu-DOTA-TATE, everolimus (both originator and generic products), and sunitinib in patients with advanced GEP-NETs (NET G1 and G2) that had progressed following treatment with somatostatin analogs (SSAs). A cost-consequence model was developed and validated by a panel of clinical experts from three NET reference centres in Italy. The clinical outcomes included in the model were median progression-free survival and the incidence of grade 3 or 4 adverse events (AEs), as reported in pivotal clinical trials. The costs for acquisition and administration of each treatment, and of managing AEs, were calculated from the perspective of the Italian national health service. Treatment costs per progression-free month were calculated separately for patients with NETs of pancreatic (PanNETs; all three treatments) and gastrointestinal (GI-NETs; 177LuLu-DOTA-TATE and everolimus only) origin.
Results
In patients with PanNETs, total costs per progression-free month were €2989 for 177LuLu-DOTA-TATE, €4975 for originator everolimus, €3472 for generic everolimus, and €5337 for sunitinib. In patients with GI-NETs, total costs per progression-free month were €3189 for 177LuLu-DOTA-TATE, €4990 for originator everolimus, and €3483 for generic everolimus.
Conclusions
177LuLu-DOTA-TATE was associated with lower costs per progression-free month versus relevant treatment options in patients with GI-NETs or PanNETs (NET G1–G2; progressed following SSA treatment), although acquisition and administration costs are higher. These findings provide further economic arguments in the overall context of treatment decision-making.
Immunotherapy is an effective therapeutic option for several cancers. In the last years, the introduction of checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has shifted the therapeutic landscape in oncology and ...improved patient prognosis in a variety of neoplastic diseases. However, to date, the selection of the best patients eligible for these therapies, as well as the response assessment is still challenging. Patients are mainly stratified using an immunohistochemical analysis of the expression of antigens on biopsy specimens, such as PD-L1 and PD-1, on tumor cells, on peritumoral immune cells and/or in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Recently, the use and development of imaging biomarkers able to assess in-vivo cancer-related processes are becoming more important. Today, positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-
Ffluoro-D-glucose (
FFDG) is used routinely to evaluate tumor metabolism, and also to predict and monitor response to immunotherapy. Although highly sensitive, FDG-PET in general is rather unspecific. Novel radiopharmaceuticals (immuno-PET radiotracers), able to identify specific immune system targets, are under investigation in pre-clinical and clinical settings to better highlight all the mechanisms involved in immunotherapy. In this review, we will provide an overview of the main new immuno-PET radiotracers in development. We will also review the main players (immune cells, tumor cells and molecular targets) involved in immunotherapy. Furthermore, we report current applications and the evidence of using
FFDG PET in immunotherapy, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Objectives
Although expert consensus recommendations suggest 2–3 h as the time interval between bone-seeking radiotracers injection and acquisition, it has been reported that images obtained early ...after
99m
TcTc-HMDP administration are sufficient to diagnose cardiac amyloidosis. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of
99m
TcTc-DPD early phase whole body scan with respect to late phase imaging.
Methods
We qualitatively and semiquantitatively reviewed
99m
TcTc-DPD imaging of 53 patients referred for suspect cardiac amyloidosis. Findings of early and late phase images were compared with SPECT results (considered the standard-of-reference) determining sensitivity and specificity for visual analysis of each phase imaging and for each semiquantitative index.
Results
SPECT imaging was negative for cardiac accumulation in 25 patients and positive in 28. Visual analysis of early phase whole body scan had an extremely significant capability to predict SPECT results; nevertheless, complete agreement was not reached. Visual analysis of late phase imaging showed slightly better results. Semiquantitative analysis of early phase images, namely heart to mediastinum ratio, performed better than semiquantitative analysis of late phase images.
Conclusion
Visual analysis of
99m
TcTc-DPD early phase whole body scan is promising in diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis; further studies are needed to confirm our results in different clinical scenarios.
Key Points
•
Visual analysis of early phase planar imaging using
99m
TcTc-DPD is accurate to diagnose cardiac amyloidosis and may be satisfactory at least in frail patients with high cardiac burden of amyloid fibrils.
Despite impressive results, almost 30% of NET do not respond to PRRT and no well-established criteria are suitable to predict response. Therefore, we assessed the predictive value of radiomics
...GaDOTATOC PET/CT images pre-PRRT in metastatic GEP NET. We retrospectively analyzed the predictive value of radiomics in 324 SSTR-2-positive lesions from 38 metastatic GEP-NET patients (nine G1, 27 G2, and two G3) who underwent restaging
GaDOTATOC PET/CT before complete PRRT with
LuDOTATOC. Clinical, laboratory, and radiological follow-up data were collected for at least six months after the last cycle. Through LifeX, we extracted 65 PET features for each lesion. Grading, PRRT number of cycles, and cumulative activity, pre- and post-PRRT CgA values were also considered as additional clinical features.
GaDOTATOC PET/CT follow-up with the same scanner for each patient determined the disease status (progression vs. response in terms of stability/reduction/disappearance) for each lesion. All features (PET and clinical) were also correlated with follow-up data in a per-site analysis (liver, lymph nodes, and bone), and for features significantly associated with response, the Δradiomics for each lesion was assessed on follow-up
GaDOTATOC PET/CT performed until nine months post-PRRT. A statistical system based on the point-biserial correlation and logistic regression analysis was used for the reduction and selection of the features. Discriminant analysis was used, instead, to obtain the predictive model using the k-fold strategy to split data into training and validation sets. From the reduction and selection process, HISTO_Skewness and HISTO_Kurtosis were able to predict response with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC ROC), sensitivity, and specificity of 0.745, 80.6%, 67.2% and 0.722, 61.2%, 75.9%, respectively. Moreover, a combination of three features (HISTO_Skewness; HISTO_Kurtosis, and Grading) did not improve the AUC significantly with 0.744. SUV
, however, could not predict the response to PRRT (
= 0.49, AUC 0.523). The presented preliminary "theragnomics" model proved to be superior to conventional quantitative parameters to predict the response of GEP-NET lesions in patients treated with complete
LuDOTATOC PRRT, regardless of the lesion site.
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![[ 68 Ga]DOTATOC PET/CT Radi...](http://api.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/image/issn/XR4PS5YY4K/2072-6694/small "[ 68 Ga]DOTATOC PET/CT Radiomics to Predict the Response in GEP-NETs Undergoing [ 177 Lu]DOTATOC PRRT: The \"Theragnomics\" Concept")