[The Day Service as a tool to reduce inappropriateness of care: the experience of a research hospital in Rome (Italy)]. / Il day service come strumento di riduzione dell'inappropriatezza: risultati dell'esperienza in un Irccs romano.

The Day Service was established in Italy to promote appropriateness of care and consists in the delivery of packages of complex outpatient services. A Working Group for the continuous improvement of pre-hospitalization activities of the Regina Elena Scientific Institute in Rome, Italy, established that the outpatient management of surgical patients in the hospital would occur in a Day Service, through a package of services identified at the regional level or appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic pathways. This article describes the experience of the hospital's Day Service and compares results from the last four months of 2013 with those of the first four months of 2014. The introduction of a Day Service has led to a reduction in the number of inappropriate pre-admission tests (mainly computerized tomography, magnetic resonance and Positron emission scans and scintigraphy) and this has had a positive impact not only in terms of organization, reduction of hospital stay and overall hospitalization-related activities, but also from an economic standpoint. The implementation of a Day Service has also improved the overall patient experience, from an organizational point of view, and this is an important aspect, considering that patients at the Regina Elena Scientific Institute are oncological patients, they are often elderly and most reside in other Italian regions.

Liposomal doxorubicin with and without TNFalpha in the perfusional treatment of advanced soft tissue limb sarcoma: preliminary results.

BACKGROUND: A combination of doxorubicin and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) has been proven to be very effective in the perfusional treatment of advanced soft tissue limb sarcoma both in terms of tumor necrosis and limb conservative surgery rate. Unfortunately, in some patients a grade IV limb reaction has been recorded. The key solution might be the use of liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx) because the carrier seems to release the drug preferentially in the tumor rather than in the healthy tissue. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty patients were treated with Caelyx: 14 with Caelyx alone and 6 in combination with a low TNFalpha dose (1 mg). In the first series of 14 patients a dose escalation study was carried out starting from a dose of 10 mg/L of limb volume. Six patients were treated with Caelyx (16 mg) and TNFalpha (1 mg). RESULTS: The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was 16 mg/L as in two patients treated with 18 mg/L a grade IV limb reaction was observed. Tumor response was satisfactory and conservative surgery was carried out in 13 patients. In 6 patients treated with Caelyx and TNFalpha, only a grade I limb reaction was recorded, thus, confirming that TNFalpha did not increase toxicity, at least at a dose of 1 mg. The Caelyx-TNFalpha combination did increase treatment efficacy. Tumor necrosis > or = 70% was observed in 4 out of 6 patients, one with 100% necrosis (pathological complete response). All the patients underwent conservative surgery. CONCLUSION: The Caelyx-TNFalpha combination was proven to increase the efficacy of Caelyx alone, with a very low toxicity. These preliminary results have to be tested in a larger patient population.