Prevalence of pulmonary embolism among patients with recent onset of dyspnea on exertion. A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Exertional dyspnea is a frequently encountered complaint in clinical practice. However, the prevalence of pulmonary embolism (PE) among patients with dyspnea on exertion has not been reported. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of objectively confirmed PE among consecutive patients visiting an emergency department because of recent onset of exertional dyspnea. METHODS: Patients aged ≤75 years with recent (<1 month) marked exertional dyspnea had a systematic workup for PE, irrespective of concomitant signs or symptoms of venous thromboembolism and alternative explanations for dyspnea. PE was excluded on the basis of a low pretest clinical probability and normal age-adjusted D-dimer. All other patients had computed tomography pulmonary angiography. An interim analysis after inclusion of 400 patients would stop recruitment if the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the PE prevalence had a lower limit exceeding 20%. RESULTS: The study was prematurely terminated after the inclusion of 417 patients. In 134 patients (32.1%), PE was excluded based on low clinical probability and normal D-dimer. PE was found in 134 (47.3%) of the remaining 283 patients, for an overall prevalence of 32.1% (95% CI, 27.8-36.8). PE was present in 40 of 204 (19.6%) patients without other findings suspicious for PE and in 94 of 213 patients (44.1%) with such findings. PE involved a main pulmonary artery in 37% and multiple lobes in 87% of the patients. CONCLUSION: The angiographic demonstration of PE is common in patients presenting with recent onset of marked exertional dyspnea, including 20% without other findings suggesting pulmonary embolism.

Elevated platelet count is a negative predictive and prognostic marker in locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiation: a retrospective multi-institutional study on 965 patients.

BACKGROUND: In patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated by neoadjuvant chemoradiation, pathological complete response in the surgical specimen is associated with favourable long-term oncologic outcome. Based on this observation, nonoperative management is being explored in the subset of patients with clinical complete response. Whereas, patients with poor response have a high risk of local and distant recurrence, and appear to receive no benefit from standard neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Therefore, in order to develop alternative treatment strategies for non responding patients, predictive and prognostic factors are highly needed. Accumulating clinical observations indicate that elevated platelet count is associated with poor outcome in different type of tumors. In this study we investigated the predictive and prognostic impact of elevated platelet count on pathological response and long-term oncologic outcome in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiation. METHODS: A total of 965 patients were selected from prospectively maintained databases of seven Centers within the SICO Colorectal Cancer Network. Patients were divided into two groups based on a pre-neoadjuvant chemoradiation platelet count cut-off value of 300 × 109/L identified by receiver operating characteristic curve considering complete pathological response as the outcome. RESULTS: Complete pathological response rate was lower in patients with elevated platelet count (12.8% vs. 22.1%, p = 0.001). Mean follow-up was 50.1 months. Comparing patients with elevated platelet count with patients with not elevated platelet count, 5-year overall survival was 69.5% vs.76.5% (p = 0.016), and 5-year disease free survival was 63.0% vs. 68.9% (p = 0.019). Local recurrence rate was higher in patients with elevated platelet count (11.1% vs. 5.3%, p = 0.001), as higher was the occurrence of distant metastasis (23.9% vs. 16.4%, p = 0.007). At multivariate analysis of potential prognostic factors EPC was independently associated with worse overall survival (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.06-1.86), and disease free survival (HR 1.37, 95% CI 1.07-1.76). CONCLUSIONS: In locally advanced rectal cancer elevated platelet count before neoadjuvant chemoradiation is a negative predictive and prognostic factor which might help to identify subsets of patients with more aggressive tumors to be proposed for alternative therapeutic strategies.

Number of lymph nodes assessed has no prognostic impact in node-negative rectal cancers after neoadjuvant therapy. Results of the "Italian Society of Surgical Oncology (S.I.C.O.) Colorectal Cancer Network" (SICO-CCN) multicentre collaborative study.

INTRODUCTION: We retrospectively investigated the impact of number or complete absence of nodes retrieved on survival of patients with rectal cancer (RC) treated with neoadjuvant radiation-therapy (NAT). METHODS: All patients with RC treated with NAT followed by curative surgery from 2000 to 2014 in 14 Italian referral Centres for Colorectal Surgery were enrolled. Information about number of nodes harvested, node ratio, type of radiation therapy schedule and tumour stage were recorded. Impact of number or complete absence of nodes retrieved on overall survival (OS) and on cumulative incidence of death for disease (CIDD) was assessed and factors influencing node yield were investigated. RESULTS: In total, 1407 patients were included. Mean number of nodes retrieved was 12.9, while no lymph nodes were found in only 32 patients (2%, ypNnull). Definite nodal stage was ypN0 in 1001 patients (71%) and ypN+ in 372 patients (27%). In multivariable analysis ypNnull patients showed worse OS and CIDD compared to both ypN0 and ypN+. In ypN0 patients, number of nodes assessed, stratified in 4 groups (<5, 5-10, 11-15 and > 15), did not significantly influence OS and CIDD. Long-course radiation schedule and early T stages negatively affected node assessment. CONCLUSION: Complete absence of nodes assessed was associated with worse prognosis compared to node-negative and node-positive patients. In node-negative patients number of nodes was not associated to OS and CIDD. Based on data from this large population of irradiated RC, number of nodes assessed has no prognostic impact in node-negative patients.

Robotic versus laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy: an up-to-date meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) reduces postoperative morbidity, hospital stay and recovery as compared with open distal pancreatectomy. Many authors believe that robotic surgery can overcome the difficulties and technical limits of LDP thanks to improved surgical manipulation and better visualization. Few studies in the literature have compared the two methods in terms of surgical and oncological outcome. The aim of this study was to compare the results of robotic (RDP) and laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of control studies published up to December 2016 comparing LDP and RDP. Two Reviewers independently assessed the eligibility and quality of the studies. The meta-analysis was conducted using either the fixed-effect or the random-effect model. RESULTS: Ten studies describing 813 patients met the inclusion criteria. This meta-analysis shows that the RDP group had a significantly higher rate of spleen preservation [OR 2.89 (95% confidence interval 1.78-4.71, p < 0.0001], a lower rate of conversion to open OR 0.33 (95% CI 0.12-0.92), p = 0.003] and a shorter hospital stay [MD -0.74; (95% CI -1.34 -0.15), p = 0.01] but a higher cost than the LDP group, while other surgical outcomes did not differ between the two groups. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis suggests that the RDP procedure is safe and comparable in terms of surgical results to LDP. However, even if the RDP has a higher cost compared to LDP, it increases the rate of spleen preservation, reduces the risk of conversion to open surgery and is associated to shorter length of hospital stay.

Long-Term Outcome of Rectal Cancer With Clinically (EUS/MRI) Metastatic Mesorectal Lymph Nodes Treated by Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation: Role of Organ Preservation Strategies in Relation to Pathologic Response.

BACKGROUND: Organ preservation strategies are under investigation for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) who achieve a complete pathologic response in the primary tumor (ypT0) after neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT). This study explored the value of this approach for cN+ patients. METHODS: Data were retrieved from our institutional prospective rectal cancer database. Tumors with mesorectal lymph nodes larger than 5 mm shown on endorectal ultrasonography, pelvic magnetic resonance imaging, or both were staged as cN+. RESULTS: The study population comprised 226 patients (142 men and 84 women; median age, 64 years) with LARC who underwent CRT followed by surgery including total mesorectal excision (TME) (n = 179) and full-thickness local excision (LE) (n = 47) between 1996 and 2013. At staging, 123 patients (54.4 %) were cN+. In 65 cases (28.7 %), ypCR was observed. Metastatic mesorectal lymph nodes (ypN+) were detected in 41.6 % of the cN+ patients and in 2.8 % of the cN0 patients (P < 0.01). Among the cN+ patients, 16 % of the ypT0 cases were ypN+ compared with 51.8 % of the no-ypT0 cases (P < 0.01). Among the cN+ patients who underwent TME, the 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were respectively 100 and 91.6 % for the ypT0 patients compared with 71.2 and 58.0 % for the no-ypT0 patients (P = 0.01). Among the ypN+ patients, the 5-year DSS and DFS rates were both 100 % for the ypT0 cases compared with 59.1 and 43.3 % for the no-ypT0 patients. Among the cN+ and ypT0 patients, the 5-year DSS and DFS were respectively 100 and 85.7 % for the TME patients compared with 100 and 91.6 % for the LE patients. In the multivariate analysis, ypT0 was the only independent prognostic factor. CONCLUSIONS: Protocols aimed at organ preservation in LARC that achieve ypT0 after CRT can be offered also to cN+ patients.

Correlation between melphalan pharmacokinetics and hepatic toxicity following hyperthermic isolated liver perfusion for unresectable metastatic disease.

BACKGROUND: In the present work, we report on the results of our pilot study of hyperthermic isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP) with melphalan alone for patients with unresectable metastatic liver tumors refractory to conventional treatments, with particular regard to the correlation between pharmacokinetic findings and hepatic toxicity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Inclusion criteria were unresectable liver metastases, hepatic parenchyma replacement