Background/Aims: The increase in the survival rate of patients with chronic renal failure due to substitution treatment prompts an investigation of their quality of life (QoL), a key measure to evaluate the outcomes of chronic disease treatment. To determine whether hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis provide a better QoL, a systematic meta-analysis was performed. Methods: We searched through the database Cinahl, Medline, PubMed, Scopus and Proquest, including articles published from 2011 until June 2016. We selected articles that compared, through KDQOL-SF 1.3 or 36 questionnaires, QoL among patients undergoing hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The data was collected using Excel Office, and t-test has been performed on independent samples to identify significant differences. Results: Only some of the seven articles found significant differences between the two treatments. One of the studies showed a better QoL for peritoneal dialysis patients, while, on the contrary, two other studies support that the best QoL is in patients receiving hemodialysis. Another article displayed significant difference only for satisfaction in relation to care, better in patients on peritoneal dialysis, and for physical health, better in hemodialysis. Conclusions: The analysis has not led to a unanimous conclusion. Quantitative analysis showed that the only statistically significant difference between the QoL of patients on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis regards the effect of kidney disease, which happens to be better in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis.

17-ketosteroids urinary elimination as well as corticotropin Thorn test have been studied in 46 patients affected with neoplastic diseases. In monocentric tumours (epithelial and connective-tissue tumours of any organs with unifocal development) a decreased urinary elimination of androgen metabolites and a normal response to Thorn test were observed. On the contrary, an apposite functional behaviour of the adrenal cortex was demonstrated in systemic tumours, resulting in an abundant elimination of urinary 17-ketosteroids and absent fall of hematic eosinophils after corticotropic stimulation. Some interpretative hypotheses are advanced.