Genetic Therapy and Molecular Targeted Therapy in Oncology: Safety, Pharmacovigilance, and Perspectives for Research and Clinical Practice.

The impressive advances in the knowledge of biomarkers and molecular targets has enabled significant progress in drug therapy for crucial diseases such as cancer. Specific areas of pharmacology have contributed to these therapeutic outcomes-mainly targeted therapy, immunomodulatory therapy, and gene therapy. This review focuses on the pharmacological profiles of these therapeutic classes and intends, on the one hand, to provide a systematic definition and, on the other, to highlight some aspects related to pharmacovigilance, namely the monitoring of safety and the identification of potential toxicities and adverse drug reactions. Although clinicians often consider pharmacovigilance a non-priority area, it highlights the risk/benefit ratio, an essential factor, especially for these advanced therapies, which represent the most innovative and promising horizon in oncology.

Web Conversations About Complementary and Alternative Medicines and Cancer: Content and Sentiment Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among cancer patients is widespread and mostly self-administrated. Today, one of the most relevant topics is the nondisclosure of CAM use to doctors. This general lack of communication exposes patients to dangerous behaviors and to less reliable information channels, such as the Web. The Italian context scarcely differs from this trend. Today, we are able to mine and analyze systematically the unstructured information available in the Web, to get an insight of people's opinions, beliefs, and rumors concerning health topics. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to analyze Italian Web conversations about CAM, identifying the most relevant Web sources, therapies, and diseases and measure the related sentiment. METHODS: Data have been collected using the Web Intelligence tool ifMONITOR. The workflow consisted of 6 phases: (1) eligibility criteria definition for the ifMONITOR search profile; (2) creation of a CAM terminology database; (3) generic Web search and automatic filtering, the results have been manually revised to refine the search profile, and stored in the ifMONITOR database; (4) automatic classification using the CAM database terms; (5) selection of the final sample and manual sentiment analysis using a 1-5 score range; (6) manual indexing of the Web sources and CAM therapies type retrieved. Descriptive univariate statistics were computed for each item: absolute frequency, percentage, central tendency (mean sentiment score [MSS]), and variability (standard variation σ). RESULTS: Overall, 212 Web sources, 423 Web documents, and 868 opinions have been retrieved. The overall sentiment measured tends to a good score (3.6 of 5). Quite a high polarization in the opinions of the conversation partaking emerged from standard variation analysis (σ≥1). In total, 126 of 212 (59.4%) Web sources retrieved were nonhealth-related. Facebook (89; 21%) and Yahoo Answers (41; 9.7%) were the most relevant. In total, 94 CAM therapies have been retrieved. Most belong to the "biologically based therapies or nutrition" category: 339 of 868 opinions (39.1%), showing an MSS of 3.9 (σ=0.83). Within nutrition, "diets" collected 154 opinions (18.4%) with an MSS of 3.8 (σ=0.87); "food as CAM" overall collected 112 opinions (12.8%) with a MSS of 4 (σ=0.68). Excluding diets and food, the most discussed CAM therapy is the controversial Italian "Di Bella multitherapy" with 102 opinions (11.8%) with an MSS of 3.4 (σ=1.21). Breast cancer was the most mentioned disease: 81 opinions of 868. CONCLUSIONS: Conversations about CAM and cancer are ubiquitous. There is a great concern about the biologically based therapies, perceived as harmless and useful, under-rating all risks related to dangerous interactions or malnutrition. Our results can be useful to doctors to be aware of the implications of these beliefs for the clinical practice. Web conversation exploitation could be a strategy to gain insights of people's perspective for other controversial topics.

Patient-Centered Cancer Care Programs in Italy: Benchmarking Global Patient Education Initiatives.

In Italy, educational programs for cancer patients are currently provided by the national government, scientific societies, and patient advocate organizations. Several gaps limit their effectiveness, including the lack of coordinated efforts, poor involvement of patient feedback in the planning of programs, as well as a lack of resources on innovative cancer-related topics. This process is parallel to a strong shift in the attitude of patients towards health in general and taking charge of their own health conditions in particular. The National Cancer Institute in the USA and the Organization of European Cancer Institutes encourage comprehensive cancer centers in providing educational programs conceived to overcome these gaps. The goal of this paper is to identify and describe the key elements necessary to develop a global patient education program and provide recommendations for strategies with practical examples for implementation in the daily activities of cancer institutes. A multidisciplinary committee was established for patient education, including patient representatives as equal partners, to define, implement, verify, and evaluate the fundamental steps for establishing a comprehensive education program. Six essential topics were identified for the program: appropriate communication of cancer epidemiology, clinical trial information, new therapeutic technologies, support in the use of medicines, psycho-oncological interventions, age-personalized approaches, and training programs for healthcare providers. Integration of these topics along with patient feedback is the key to a successful model for educational programs. An integrated educational program can transform a comprehensive cancer center to an institution that provides research and care for and with patients.

Treatments and Outcomes Among Patients with Sydenham Chorea: A Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Sydenham chorea is the most common acquired chorea of childhood worldwide; however, treatment is limited by a lack of high-quality evidence. Objectives: To evaluate historical changes in the clinical characteristics of Sydenham chorea and identify clinical and treatment factors at disease onset associated with chorea duration, relapsing disease course, and functional outcome. Data Sources: The systematic search for this meta-analysis was conducted in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and LILACS databases and registers of clinical trials from inception to November 1, 2022 (search terms: [Sydenham OR Sydenham's OR rheumatic OR minor] AND chorea). Study Selection: Published articles that included patients with a final diagnosis of Sydenham chorea (in selected languages). Data Extraction and Synthesis: This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline. Individual patient data on clinical characteristics, treatments, chorea duration, relapse, and final outcome were extracted. Data from patients in the modern era (1945 through 2022) were entered into multivariable models and stratified by corticosteroid duration for survival analysis of chorea duration. Main Outcomes and Measures: The planned study outcomes were chorea duration at onset, monophasic course (absence of relapse after ≥24 months), and functional outcome (poor: modified Rankin Scale score 2-6 or persisting chorea, psychiatric, or behavioral symptoms at final follow-up after ≥6 months; good: modified Rankin Scale score 0-1 and no chorea, psychiatric, or behavioral symptoms at final follow-up). Results: In total, 1479 patients were included (from 307 articles), 1325 since 1945 (median [IQR] age at onset, 10 [8-13] years; 875 of 1272 female [68.8%]). Immunotherapy was associated with shorter chorea duration (hazard ratio for chorea resolution, 1.51 [95% CI, 1.05-2.19]; P = .03). The median chorea duration in patients receiving 1 or more months of corticosteroids was 1.2 months (95% CI, 1.2-2.0) vs 2.8 months (95% CI, 2.0-3.0) for patients receiving none (P = .004). Treatment factors associated with monophasic disease course were antibiotics (odds ratio [OR] for relapse, 0.28 [95% CI, 0.09-0.85]; P = .02), corticosteroids (OR, 0.32 [95% CI, 0.15-0.67]; P = .003), and sodium valproate (OR, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.15-0.71]; P = .004). Patients receiving at least 1 month of corticosteroids had significantly lower odds of relapsing course (OR, 0.10 [95% CI, 0.04-0.25]; P < .001). No treatment factor was associated with good functional outcome. Conclusions and Relevance: In this meta-analysis of treatments and outcomes in patients with Sydenham chorea, immunotherapy, in particular corticosteroid treatment, was associated with faster resolution of chorea. Antibiotics, corticosteroids and sodium valproate were associated with a monophasic disease course. This synthesis of retrospective data should support the development of evidence-based treatment guidelines for patients with Sydenham chorea.