Publications by authors named "Adam Maciejczyk"

Importance: Millions of Ukrainians displaced by war have sought refuge in Poland, posing challenges for cancer care. Determining whether these refugees present with more-advanced breast cancer is crucial for guiding resource allocation.

Objective: To evaluate the associations between Ukrainian refugee status and clinical presentation of breast cancer compared with Ukrainian permanent residents in Poland and the general Polish population.

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Background: Routine medical imaging used for preliminary breast cancer workup, such as mammography (MMG) and ultrasound (US), has limited utility for radiation oncologists. We hypothesized that the inclusion of cross-sectional imaging (CT scan or PET-CT) prior to primary systemic therapy (PST) would improve clinical staging accuracy and facilitate customized postoperative radiation therapy planning. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the standard baseline imaging with extended radiological staging.

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Prostate cancer (PCa) is a major public health concern for men globally and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the European Union (EU). Despite large trials suggesting benefits from early detection of PCa, risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment are evident. In 2022, the EU Commission proposed introducing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for men in an organised setting, in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning as a follow-up test to minimise these risks.

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Unlabelled: The incidence of head and neck cancer (HNC) has significantly increased over the past two decades.

Material And Methods: This study analyzed trends in HNC incidence and mortality using data from the Polish Cancer Register (1999-2021) across three age cohorts (60-69, 70-79, and 80+) and projected trends through to 2035. Statistical analyses included regression, correlation, and parallelism tests, with significance levels of α = 0.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. Changes in the immune system also observed in cancer may suggest a higher prevalence of cancer in the MS patient population. In recent years, many highly effective immunosuppressive drugs have been introduced into disease-modifying therapy (DMT) which may be associated with a higher risk of cancer development in patients with MS.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study reveals a significant rise in head and neck cancer (HNC) cases and deaths among the elderly in Poland from 1999 to 2021, particularly in those aged 80 and older.
  • The research analyzed data from the Polish National Cancer Register and applied statistical methods to assess trends and correlations in morbidity and mortality across different age groups.
  • The results indicate an urgent need for specialized cancer care strategies to improve treatment outcomes and quality of life for elderly patients, especially for the 80+ demographic.
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Vitamin D (VD) is known for its immunomodulatory and anticancer effects. This study aimed to characterize tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in breast cancer (BC) and assess the influence of VD and its active metabolite, calcitriol, on their polarization. TAMs were isolated from BC patients and characterized.

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Introduction: Homologous recombination (HR) is a crucial DNA-repair mechanism, and its disruption can lead to the accumulation of mutations that initiate and promote cancer formation. The key HR genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are particularly significant as their germline pathogenic variants are associated with a hereditary predisposition to breast and/or ovarian cancer.

Materials And Methods: The study was performed on 45 FFPE breast cancer tissues obtained from 24 and 21 patients, with and without the germline BRCA1/2 mutation, respectively.

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Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 million fatalities occurred in 2023. Breast cancer (BC) ranked first among malignancies with 2.

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Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the foundation treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and frequently results in pathological complete response (pCR). However, there are large differences in clinical response and survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy of TNBC patients. The aim was to identify genes whose expression significantly associates with the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with TNBC.

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Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, a groundbreaking immunotherapy. However, it faces formidable challenges in treating solid tumors, grappling with issues like poor trafficking, limited penetration, and insufficient persistence within the tumor microenvironment (TME). CAR-T cells are engineered to express receptors that target specific cancer antigens, enhancing their ability to recognize and eliminate cancer cells.

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Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play an important role in the tumor microenvironment. Despite the well-known in vitro antitumoral effect of vitamin D (VD), its impact on breast CAFs is almost unknown. In this study, we analyzed the ex vivo effects of calcitriol on CAFs isolated from breast cancer tissues.

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Our research found that vitamin D (VD) treatment increased lung metastasis in mice with 4T1 murine breast cancer (BC). This study aims to investigate the impact of VD on the activation of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in BC. Mice bearing 4T1, E0771, 67NR BC cells, and healthy mice, were fed diets with varying VD contents (100-deficient, 1000-normal, and 5000 IU/kg-elevated).

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Summary: The algorithm of follow-up in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) has been prepared by a board of Polish Head Neck and Oncology Experts. The aim of this research is to focus on the specificity of HNC monitoring, to review the current trends in follow-up, and to adapt the evidence-based medicine international standards to the capabilities of the local healthcare service.

Materials And Methods: The first methodological step was to categorize HNCs according to the estimated risk of failure after the adequate first-line treatment and according to the possibility of effective salvage treatment, resulting in improved overall survival.

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Introduction: Follow-up plays a key role in melanoma management, especially in the first years after diagnosis. During this period it is crucial to assess possible recurrence, progression of the disease or treatment complications. An important aspect is also the possibility of formation of new primary foci or other skin cancers.

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Cancer is the second most common cause of death in Poland and the number of new cases is expected to increase by 28% over the next 10 years. Despite modifications and expenditure growth in the Polish health care system, oncological treatment outcomes are lower comparing to the other European Union countries. Early preventative interventions are effective in reducing the total number of cancers and improving early detection.

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We have previously shown that high expression of prolactin-induced protein (PIP) correlates with the response of breast cancer (BC) patients to standard adjuvant chemotherapy (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide), which suggests that the absence of this glycoprotein is associated with resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy. Therefore, in the present study, we analyzed the impact of PIP expression on resistance of BC cells to anti-cancer drugs and its biological role in BC progression. Expression of PIP and apoptotic genes in BC cell lines was analyzed using real-time PCR and Western blotting.

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Background: Breast cancer (BC) poses a public health challenge as the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women globally. While BC mortality has declined across Europe in the past three decades, an opposite trend has been reported in some transitional European countries. This analysis estimates the mortality burden and the cost of lost productivity due to BC deaths in nine Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia, that have defied the favorable cancer mortality trends.

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Background: The new classification of endometrial carcinoma (EC) requires molecular interpretation of somatic polymerase epsilon (POLE) exonuclease domain mutations. The identification of pathogenic mutations within the POLE gene defines the important subtype of ultramutated tumours ("POLE-ultramutated") with specified prognostic and predictive utility. POLE somatic mutations are present in 7-12% of ECs, usually high-grade tumours with aggressive appearance.

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Breast cancer is becoming an important issue due to its various consequences and epidemiology. Studies are showing that it extremely impacts the mental health as well as the physical activity of the patients. In addition to the most common symptom, which is fatigue, patients also have problems with the quality of sleep.

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Background: In recent years, benchmarking and assessment methods to improve the quality of care have become increasingly important. Such approaches allow for a uniform assessment, comparisons between centers or over time, and the identification of weaknesses. In this study, the results of a 20-month pilot program to assess, monitor and improve the quality of care in melanoma patients primarily treated surgically are presented.

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Vitamin D and its analogs are known to modulate the activity of fibroblasts under various disease conditions. However, their impact on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) is yet to be fully investigated. The aim of this study was to characterize CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs) from the lung of mice bearing 4T1, 67NR, and E0771 cancers and healthy mice fed vitamin-D-normal (1000 IU), -deficient (100 IU), and -supplemented (5000 IU) diets.

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