The Experience of an Italian Public Homeopathy Clinic during the COVID-19 Epidemic, March-May 2020.

During the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy, hospital outpatient clinics progressively decreased their activities; in March 2020 they were closed except for emergencies. During this period, the activities of the public Homeopathy Outpatient Clinic of Lucca aimed at guaranteeing therapeutic continuity to patients by means of telephone or video consultations, and searching for homeopathic medicines that best responded to early COVID-19 symptoms. In March 2020, the Complementary Medicine Working Group participated in the organization of a mission of COVID-19 Chinese experts for the online training of professionals working in the Tuscan Healthcare System. The medical staff of the Lucca Clinic also cooperated in telephone health surveillance of infected patients at home, seroprevalence investigations using the capillary blood rapid test, and the implementation of the CLIFICOL (Clinical Files Collection) project.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration for the diagnosis and grading of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: a retrospective analysis of 110 cases.

BACKGROUND: Data on the reliability of the Ki-67 index and grading calculations from endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are controversial. We aimed to assess the accuracy of these data compared with histology. METHODS: Cytological analysis from EUS-FNA in patients with suspected PanNETs (n = 110) were compared with resection samples at a single institution. A minimum of 2000 cells were considered to be adequate for grading. Correlation and agreement between cytology and histology in grading and Ki-67 values, respectively, were investigated. Secondary outcomes included the diagnostic performance of EUS-FNA. RESULTS: EUS-FNA samples were adequate for PanNET diagnosis and PanNET grading in 98/110 (89.1 %) and 77/110 (70.0 %) patients, respectively; thus, 77 samples were adequate for comparing cytology vs. histology. There were 67 (62.0 %), 40 (36.4 %), and 1 (0.9 %) patients with a final diagnosis of G1, G2, and G3 tumors, respectively. EUS-FNA grading was concordant with surgical pathology in 81.8 % of patients; under- and overgrading occurred in 15.6 % and 2.6 %, respectively. The overall level of agreement for grading was moderate (Cohen's κ = 0.59, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.34 - 0.78). Spearman's rho for Ki-67 in tumors ≤ 20 mm and > 20 mm was strong and moderate, respectively (rho = 0.68, 95 %CI 0.47 - 0.83; rho = 0.59, 95 %CI 0.35 - 0.75). The Bland - Altman plot showed that the Ki-67 values were comparable and reproducible between the two measurements. CONCLUSIONS: Although they were not available for a significant number of patients, grading and Ki-67 values from cytology correlated with histology moderately to strongly.

Prognostic Impact of Preoperative Nutritional Risk in Patients Who Undergo Surgery for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Nutritional derangements are common hallmarks of pancreatic cancer (PC). Their early detection and management are usually overlooked in routine practice. This study aimed to explore preoperative nutritional status and its prognostic value in patients undergoing surgery for PC. METHODS: Data from 73 patients who underwent surgery for PC from November 2015 to January 2018 at the General and Pancreatic Surgery Unit, The Pancreas Institute, University Hospital of Verona Hospital, Verona, Italy, were retrospectively evaluated. The Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS)-2002 was used to evaluate the preoperative nutritional risk. Body composition was assessed using bioimpedance vectorial analysis (BIVA) on the day prior to surgery. The effect of clinical, pathological, and nutritional characteristics on overall survival (OS) was investigated using a Cox and logistic regression model. Kaplan-Meier curves were compared using the log-rank test. RESULTS: Most patients (80.8%) were at preoperative risk of malnutrition (NRS-2002 ≥ 3) despite a mean BMI of 24.1 kg/m2(± 4.3). Twenty-four patients (32.9%) received neoadjuvant therapy prior to surgery. Preoperative NRS-2002 was significantly higher in this subset of patients (p = 0.026), with a significant difference by chemotherapy regimens (in favor of FOLFIRINOX, p = 0.035). In a multivariate analysis, the only independent prognostic factor for OS was the NRS-2002 score (HR 5.24, p = 0.013). Particularly, the likelihood of 2-year survival was higher in NRS < 3 (p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis confirms that preoperative malnutrition has a detrimental impact on OS in PC patients undergoing radical surgery for PC. Careful preoperative nutritional evaluation of PC patients should be mandatory, especially in those who are candidates for neoadjuvant therapy.

Palliative therapy in pancreatic cancer-interventional treatment with radiofrequency ablation/irreversible electroporation.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a solid tumor with still a dismal prognosis. Diagnosis is usually late, when the disease is metastatic or locally advanced (LAPC). Only 20% of PC are amenable to surgery at the time of diagnosis and the vast majority of them, despite radically resected will unavoidably recur. The treatment of LAPC is a challenge. Current guidelines suggest to adopt systemic therapies upfront, based on multi-drugs chemotherapy regimens. However, the vast majority of patients will never experience conversion to surgical exploration and radical resection. Thus, there a large subgroup of LAPC patients where the only therapeutic chance is to offer palliative treatments, such as interventional ablative treatments, in order to obtain a cytoreduction of the tumor, trying to delay its growth and spread. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and irreversible electroporation (IRE) demonstrated to be safe and effective in obtaining a local control of the disease with some promising oncological results in terms of overall survival (OS). However, they should be adopted as a treatment strategy to adopt in parallel with other systemic therapies, within multidisciplinary choices. They are not free from complications, even serious, thus they should applied only in specialized centers of pancreatology. This review depicts the state of the art of the two techniques.