Mimicking the Dystrophic Cardiac Extracellular Environment through DystroGel.

Advances in understanding the mechanisms behind genetic diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) underscore the critical role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) composition in disease progression. Effective in vitro models must replicate the intercellular relationships and physicochemical properties of native ECM to fully capture disease-specific characteristics. Although recent biomaterials support the in vitro biofabrication of pathophysiological environments, they often lack disease-specific ECM features.

Real-life clinical benefit of oral metronomic cyclophosphamide administration in elderly and heavily pretreated epithelial ovarian cancer patients.

Purpose: Oral metronomic cyclophosphamide (OMC) implicates the daily administration of low doses of chemotherapy. Its antitumor activity combined with an oral administration route and a good toxicity profile makes OMC an attractive option for heavily pretreated patients. We retrospectively evaluated OMC's clinical benefit and objective response in recurrent ovarian cancer patients.

Development and clinical application of a tool to identify frailty in elderly patients with gynecological cancers.

Objective: Frailty is more reliable than chronological age in predicting the effectiveness and tolerability of treatments in cancer patients. An increasing number of screening tools have been proposed, however none have received unanimous consent or been specifically designed for women with gynecological malignancies.This study's aim was to develop a clinical application of a screening tool to identify frail patients >70 years old diagnosed with either ovarian or endometrial cancers.

Immunonutrition in ovarian cancer: clinical and immunological impact?

Objective: Malnutrition is frequent in ovarian cancer (OC) patients and may compromise post-operative outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of pre-operative immunonutrition on the surgical outcome of OC patients, and on their nutritional, inflammatory and peripheral blood immune status.

Methods: A prospective study was performed between September 2016 and April 2020.

How challenging could be preoperative and intraoperative diagnosis of endometrial cancer?

Background: Aim of this study was to rate the misdiagnosis of histological type between preoperative endometrial biopsy and final postoperative pathology focusing on non-endometrioid endometrial cancer (NEEC). Secondary objective is to assess the concordance between intraoperative assessment and final pathology in a subgroup of patients.

Methods: A multicenter retrospective study was conducted in patients with histological diagnosis of endometrial cancer who underwent surgical staging between 2011 and 2016.

Current Evidence of the Oncological Benefit-Risk Profile of Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) remains the most effective treatment for menopausal symptoms and has been shown to prevent bone loss and fracture. The progestogen is added to provide endometrial protection in women with an intact uterus. After the publication of the initial WHI (Women's Health Initiative) results in 2002 reporting an overall increased risk of breast cancer, many women discontinued HRT.

Oral metronomic cyclophosphamide in advanced ovarian cancer: long-lasting clinical response in an elderly frailty patient.

Elderly patients with ovarian cancer are an increasing population and many of them are frailty with an increased risk of postoperative complications, chemotherapy intolerance and mortality. Metronomic chemotherapy is the chronic administration of low, equally spaced, doses of antineoplastic drugs with therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity. Oral metronomic cyclophosphamide has gained increasing interest in recent years in the treatment of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.

Development of a preoperative computed tomography score for the management of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective: The main objective is to develop a model based on computed tomographic features to predict surgical outcome and establish cut-offs to rationalize clinical management in advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma. The secondary purpose is to identify parameters that should be reported by radiologists to allow a correct pre-operative evaluation.

Methods: This study evaluated the association between 17 radiologic parameters and surgical outcome through the review of 61 computed tomographic scans.

Can Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 predict the impact of frailty on chemotherapy in elderly patients with gynaecological malignancies?

The management of gynaecological cancers in elderly women and high-risk patients is an even more relevant issue, because the increase in longevity and comorbidities. The assumption of frailty based on age alone may lead to inadequate and inappropriate treatment and frailty assessment is recommended. The aim of this study was to assess if Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13), as indicator of frailty, can predict the toxicity of chemotherapy in gynaecological cancers.