First Prognosticator of Survival in Aggressive Cancer
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The tumor suppressor gene pRb2/p130 may provide the first independent prognostic biomarker in cases of soft tissue sarcoma (STS), according to an international collaboration of researchers, including scientists at the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at the College of Science and Technology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, the Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, University of Siena and the Center of Oncological Research of Mercogliano (CROM) in Avellino, Italy. The research appear in the latest issue of Clinical Cancer Research www.aacrjournals.org). The findings show that a reduction in the expression of pRb2/p130 can mean a higher risk of recurrence and death from STSs. The gene pRb2/p130, a member of the retinoblastoma family of genes, regulates a portion of the cell cycle. Clinicians have long sought a prognostic test for the disease, which can be highly aggressive and unpredictable, making it difficult to determine the most beneficial course of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments following surgery. A prognostic indicator will help doctors determine which patients have a higher risk of recurrence of the disease and who might benefit from a more aggressive adjuvant therapy. In the study, researchers examined specimens taken from 41 patients with STS. In a subset of 31 cases of nonmetastatic cancers, they found a direct relationship between pRb2/p130 expression and the clinical outcome of patients. “We found that pRb2/p130 expression was lost or decreased and significantly correlated with recurrence of disease and poor survival rates in the subset of patients with nonmetastatic tumors,” said Valeria Masciullo, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study. “A prognostic test could define the natural history of STSs, while also helping to identify possible targets for new kinds of therapies,” said Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Sbarro Institute, Professor of Molecular Biology at the College of Science and Technology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and Full Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Histology of the University of Siena. The researchers noted that the reliability of pRb2/p130 as a potential marker in the clinical routine assessment and management of patients with STS deserves to be further evaluated in long-term follow-up studies on a larger number of cases. In addition to the organization listed above participating researchers who collaborated in the study were affiliated with the Department of Pathology, San Giovanni Battista Hospital, the Department of Medical Oncology, Gradenigo Hospital, Turin, Italy and the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Institute of General Pathology, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy.
A month ago Professor Giovan Giacomo Giordano, the distinguished medical pathologist who has devoted over sixty years of his life in the field of cancer research and teaching Anatomic and Pathological Histology at the University of Naples, passed away. Author and coauthor of over three hundred publications, has spent most of his scientific research to study: the interaction between chemical...read
In recent decades, the profound anthropological and socio-demographic changes of the childbearing population have resulted in a new approach to childbirth. As documented by ISTAT, the increase in the number of female population (greater than 20%) and of their cultural level (8-fold increased rate of women holding a university degree), together with medical advances, a demographic decline in the...read
The Institute of Biosciences for Human Health of the Human Health Foundation Onlus of Spoleto (HHF), Foundation for Human Health, based in Spoleto and Terni, opened in Terni, in the Maratta location (via Bartocci 9 / B) on June 7.
Some years ago, two professionals coming from completely different areas of work, met and discussed at length, and afterwards created, a completely innovative project...read
Thanks to the success of antiretroviral therapies, the HIV / AIDS has been transformed into a chronic condition, and has assured HIV patients undergoing treatment with diligence, a quality of life and a survival that was unthinkable a few years ago.
However, these advances obtained in the therapeutic field generated in the public the false belief that the "problem HIV / AIDS" was entirely, or...read
The Advanced Training Course In Management Of Communication and Information in Healthcare, jointly organized by the Faculty of Education of the University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, headed by Lucio d'Alessandro, and by the Training School in Health Management, Department of Preventive Medical Sciences, directed by Maria Triassi, of the Faculty of Medicine of the University Federico II, is...read
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The tumor suppressor gene pRb2/p130 may provide the first independent prognostic biomarker in cases of soft tissue sarcoma (STS), according to an international collaboration of researchers, including scientists at the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at the College of Science and Technology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, the Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, University of Siena and the Center of Oncological Research of Mercogliano (CROM) in Avellino, Italy. The research appear in the latest issue of Clinical Cancer Research www.aacrjournals.org). The findings show that a reduction in the expression of pRb2/p130 can mean a higher risk of recurrence and death from STSs. The gene pRb2/p130, a member of the retinoblastoma family of genes, regulates a portion of the cell cycle. Clinicians have long sought a prognostic test for the disease, which can be highly aggressive and unpredictable, making it difficult to determine the most beneficial course of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments following surgery. A prognostic indicator will help doctors determine which patients have a higher risk of recurrence of the disease and who might benefit from a more aggressive adjuvant therapy. In the study, researchers examined specimens taken from 41 patients with STS. In a subset of 31 cases of nonmetastatic cancers, they found a direct relationship between pRb2/p130 expression and the clinical outcome of patients. “We found that pRb2/p130 expression was lost or decreased and significantly correlated with recurrence of disease and poor survival rates in the subset of patients with nonmetastatic tumors,” said Valeria Masciullo, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study. “A prognostic test could define the natural history of STSs, while also helping to identify possible targets for new kinds of therapies,” said Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Sbarro Institute, Professor of Molecular Biology at the College of Science and Technology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and Full Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Histology of the University of Siena. The researchers noted that the reliability of pRb2/p130 as a potential marker in the clinical routine assessment and management of patients with STS deserves to be further evaluated in long-term follow-up studies on a larger number of cases. In addition to the organization listed above participating researchers who collaborated in the study were affiliated with the Department of Pathology, San Giovanni Battista Hospital, the Department of Medical Oncology, Gradenigo Hospital, Turin, Italy and the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Institute of General Pathology, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. 
A month ago Professor Giovan Giacomo Giordano, the distinguished medical pathologist who has devoted over sixty years of his life in the field of cancer research and teaching Anatomic and Pathological Histology at the University of Naples, passed away. Author and coauthor of over three hundred publications, has spent most of his scientific research to study: the interaction between chemical...
In recent decades, the profound anthropological and socio-demographic changes of the childbearing population have resulted in a new approach to childbirth. As documented by ISTAT, the increase in the number of female population (greater than 20%) and of their cultural level (8-fold increased rate of women holding a university degree), together with medical advances, a demographic decline in the...
The Institute of Biosciences for Human Health of the Human Health Foundation Onlus of Spoleto (HHF), Foundation for Human Health, based in Spoleto and Terni, opened in Terni, in the Maratta location (via Bartocci 9 / B) on June 7.
Some years ago, two professionals coming from completely different areas of work, met and discussed at length, and afterwards created, a completely innovative project...
Thanks to the success of antiretroviral therapies, the HIV / AIDS has been transformed into a chronic condition, and has assured HIV patients undergoing treatment with diligence, a quality of life and a survival that was unthinkable a few years ago.
However, these advances obtained in the therapeutic field generated in the public the false belief that the "problem HIV / AIDS" was entirely, or...
The Advanced Training Course In Management Of Communication and Information in Healthcare, jointly organized by the Faculty of Education of the University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, headed by Lucio d'Alessandro, and by the Training School in Health Management, Department of Preventive Medical Sciences, directed by Maria Triassi, of the Faculty of Medicine of the University Federico II, is...
