Instant messaging in cancer care.

Instant messaging applications, such as WhatsApp® and Telegram®, have transformed global communication, offering unique business models and minimal user expenses. Unlike traditional SMS, these apps facilitate unlimited, multimedia-rich communication globally, driven by widespread smartphone adoption. This shift not only broadens communication horizons but also enhances privacy compared to conventional voice calls. In healthcare, instant messaging, particularly unidirectional communication, proves impactful, evidenced by trials like TEXT ME and Healthy Text. These studies highlight text messages' efficacy in cardiovascular disease prevention and cancer prevention, demonstrating improved patient outcomes and behavioral changes. Bidirectional communication through instant messaging holds promise in cancer care, facilitating patient-doctor interactions, adverse event management, and medication compliance. Studies on pharmacist-run tele-oncology services and WeChat-based doctor-patient communication showcase positive impacts on chemotherapy monitoring, patient adherence, and overall survival rates. Despite these advantages, challenges arise from the use of widely available apps like WhatsApp and WeChat, including a lack of structure, constant message influx, and potential physician burnout. Innovative solutions, exemplified by the Esperto in chat® platform, introduce structured approaches to doctor-patient communication, addressing financial considerations, scheduling, and maintaining work-life balance for healthcare professionals. In conclusion, while instant messaging revolutionizes healthcare communication, challenges necessitate innovative solutions. Striking a balance between accessibility and safeguarding healthcare professionals' well-being is crucial as the digital transformation of healthcare continues.

PREVES: A Population-Based Survey Focused on Cancer and Nutrition.

INTRODUCTION: Approximately a third of cancer-related deaths are attributable to modifiable factors. METHODS: As a pilot experience, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in 8,000 citizens residing in four different municipalities of the Salerno province (Sarno, Pagani, San Valentino Torio, and San Marzano sul Sarno) to investigate key lifestyle and dietary habits. RESULTS: A total of 703 of participants (8.7%) reported a history of malignancy. Alarmingly, 30.5% declared to be a current smoker, while 78.8% did not report any kind of physical activity. Encouragingly, 64.5% declared to be abstemious, and 83.0% declared to consume fruit and vegetables every day, while 4.7% and 31.9% declared not to consume meat and fried food, respectively, at any time. Never-consumers of fruit and vegetables had higher odds of having a history of colorectal cancer (OR = 5.01; 95% CI = 1.46-17.15; p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The PREVES study has served to prove the validity of an operational model allowing to integrate hospital and territorial healthcare services, which we expect to be applied at a larger scale. Key information regarding dietary and lifestyle habits of the investigated population was obtained. Larger studies conducted using more accurate approaches to investigate diet, such as 24-h recalls and food frequency questionnaires, are warranted.

ProEx C as Diagnostic Marker for Detection of Urothelial Carcinoma in Urinary Samples: A Review.

The gold standard for the detection of urothelial carcinoma is represented by urethro-cystoscopy and biopsy. Both procedures are invasive and expensive and therefore cytology is often used as first approach to investigate on a possible neoplasia, being a safe and cost-effective diagnostic modality of evaluation. Because cytology alone is not highly sensitive for detection of low grade urothelial carcinoma and recurrence of the disease, several adjunct markers and urine based tests for urothelial carcinoma have been developed, which can help in the final diagnosis. In particular, ProEx C is an immunohistochemical cocktail containing antibodies direct against topoisomerase IIα (TOP2A) and minichromosome maintenance 2 (MCM2) proteins. It proved to be a valid biomarker especially in detecting squamous intraepithelial lesions in cervical liquid-based samples and in discerning these lesions from their mimickers, as well as in ovarian, endometrial, vulvar, primary and metastatic melanomas, breast, pancreatic and renal cell carcinomas. This brief review covers the effective utility of ProEx C as adjunct tool in assessing the urothelial lesions in urine cytology, also providing prognostic and therapeutic information to help in clinical decisions.

Unraveling the Dietary Puzzle: Exploring the Influence of Diet, Nutraceuticals, and Supplements on Bladder Cancer Risk, Outcomes, and Immunotherapy Efficacy: Insights from the BLOSSOM Study and Beyond.

Bladder cancer is considered a global health concern characterized by significant morbidity and mortality rates. The complex relationship between diet and bladder cancer is examined, with a specific focus on the role of diet in risk, outcomes, and treatment efficacy. Attention is drawn to the burgeoning field of immunotherapy in bladder cancer treatment, and the possible influence of diet on its outcomes is explored. While evidence remains limited, prior studies in other cancer types have suggested a potential connection between diet and immunotherapy response. To address this knowledge gap, the ongoing BLOSSOM study is presented, which aims to investigate the link between dietary factors, lifestyle, and the effectiveness of immunotherapy in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Ongoing efforts to decipher the intricate relationship between diet and bladder cancer care are highlighted, emphasizing the quest to unravel the dietary puzzle for the improvement of bladder cancer management.

Correction: Metabolic syndrome, endocrine disruptors and prostate cancer associations: biochemical and pathophysiological evidences.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.16725.].

Micrornas in prostate cancer: an overview.

Prostate cancer is the second highest cause of cancer mortality after lung tumours. In USA it affects about 2.8 million men and the incidence increases with age in many countries. Therefore, early diagnosis is a very important step for patient clinical evaluation and for a selective and efficient therapy. The study of miRNAs' functions and molecular mechanisms has brought new knowledge in biological processes of cancer. In prostate cancer there is a deregulation of several miRNAs that may function as tumour suppressors or oncogenes. The aim of this review is to analyze the progress made to our understanding of the role of miRNA dysregulation in prostate cancer tumourigenesis.

Metabolic syndrome, endocrine disruptors and prostate cancer associations: biochemical and pathophysiological evidences.

This review summarizes the main pathophysiological basis of the relationship between metabolic syndrome, endocrine disruptor exposure and prostate cancer that is the most common cancer among men in industrialized countries. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic and hormonal factors having a central role in the initiation and recurrence of many western chronic diseases including hormonal-related cancers and it is considered as the world's leading health problem in the coming years. Many biological factors correlate metabolic syndrome to prostate cancer and this review is aimed to focus, principally, on growth factors, cytokines, adipokines, central obesity, endocrine abnormalities and exposure to specific endocrine disruptors, a cluster of chemicals, to which we are daily exposed, with a hormone-like structure influencing oncogenes, tumor suppressors and proteins with a key role in metabolism, cell survival and chemo-resistance of prostate cancer cells. Finally, this review will analyze, from a molecular point of view, how specific foods could reduce the relative risk of incidence and recurrence of prostate cancer or inhibit the biological effects of endocrine disruptors on prostate cancer cells. On the basis of these considerations, prostate cancer remains a great health problem in terms of incidence and prevalence and interventional studies based on the treatment of metabolic syndrome in cancer patients, minimizing exposure to endocrine disruptors, could be a key point in the overall management of this disease.

Role of DNA repair machinery and p53 in the testicular germ cell cancer: a review.

Notwithstanding the peculiar sensitivity to cisplatin-based treatment, resulting in a very high percentage of cures even in advanced stages of the disease, still we do not know the biological mechanisms that make Testicular Germ Cell Tumor (TGCT) "unique" in the oncology scene. p53 and MDM2 seem to play a pivotal role, according to several in vitro observations, but no correlation has been found between their mutational or expression status in tissue samples and patients clinical outcome. Furthermore, other players seem to be on stage: DNA Damage Repair Machinery (DDR) , especially Homologous Recombination (HR) proteins, above all Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM), cooperates with p53 in response to DNA damage, activating apoptotic cascade and contributing to cell "fate". Homologous Recombination deficiency has been assumed to be a Germ Cell Tumor characteristic underlying platinum-sensitivity, whereby Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), an enzyme involved in HR DNA repair, is an intriguing target: PARP inhibitors have already entered in clinical practice of other malignancies and trials are recruiting TGCT patients in order to validate their role in this disease. This paper aims to summarize evidence, trying to outline an overview of DDR implications not only in TGCT curability, but also in resistance to chemotherapy.