Patients treated with platinum compounds are subject to hypersensitivity reactions. Our study has highlighted the reactions related to oxaliplatin (OHP) infusion. One hundred and twenty-four patients affected by advanced colorectal cancer were treated with different schedules containing OHP, at the Institute of Haematology and Medical Oncology 'L. and A. Seragnoli' of Bologna and at the Medical Oncology Division of Livorno Hospital. Seventeen patients (13%) showed hypersensitivity reactions after a few minutes from the start of the OHP infusion. Usually, these reactions were seen after 2 -17 exposures to OHP (Mean7s.e.: 9.471.07). No patient experienced allergic reactions at his/her first OHP infusion. Eight patients developed a mild reaction consisting of flushing and swelling of the face and hands, itching, sweating and lachrymation. The remaining nine patients showed a moderatesevere reaction with dyspnoea, wheezing, laryngospasm, psycho-motor agitation, tachycardia, precordial pain, diffuse erythema, itching and sweating. Six patients out of 17 were re-exposed to the drug with premedication of steroids and all except one developed the hypersensitivity reaction again. The cumulative dose, the time of exposure to OHP and the clinical features are variable and unpredictable. The risk of developing hypersensitivity reactions in patients treated with a short infusion of OHP cannot be underestimated.

Luminal gastrointestinal (GI) metastases from breast cancer are rare, reports are fragmentary and poor. The purposes of this study are to assess the gastrointestinal involvement from breast cancer in a retrospective study at a single institution and reviewing the related literature. Between January 2007 and December 2011 a total of 980 patients with breast cancer were treated at our institution, patients' records and report database were analysed. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for this study. A search of the literature using PubMed, CancerLit, Embase, was performed. Selected for the present review were papers published in English before June 2012. Five of 980 patients (0.5%) showed gastrointestinal metastases from breast cancer, 3 patients had gastric involvement, 1 jejunum, and 1 rectum. Reviewing the literature, 206 patients affected by gastrointestinal metastasis from breast cancer were identified: the most frequent site of metastasis was the stomach (60%). The majority of the patients underwent chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, someone surgery and radiotherapy. GI metastases from breast cancer are rare, but possible, and a very late recurrence can also occur. Cyto-histological diagnosis is mandatory, to differentiate GI metastases from breast cancer to other diseases and to allow an adequate treatment.

BackgroundA central venous catheter (CVC) currently represents the most frequently adopted intravenous line for patients undergoing infusional chemotherapy and/or high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation and parenteral nutrition.CVC insertion represents a risk for pneumothorax, nerve or arterial punctures. The aim of this prospective observational study was to explore the safety and efficacy of CVC insertion under ultrasound (US) guidance and to confirm its utility in clinical practice in cancer patients.MethodsConsecutive adult patients attending the oncology-hematology department were eligible if they had solid or hematologic malignancies and required CVC insertion. Four types of possible complication were defined a priore: mechanical, thrombotic, infection and malfunctioning.The patient was placed in Trendelenburg's position, a 7.5 MHZ puncturing US probe was placed in the supraclavicular site and a 16-gauge needle was advanced under real-time US guidance into the last portion of internal jugular vein. The Seldinger technique was used to place the catheter, which was advanced into the superior vena cava until insertion into right atrium. Within two hours after each procedure, an upright chest X-ray and ultrasound scanning were carried out to confirm the CVC position and to rule out a pneumotorax. CVC-related infections, symptomatic vein thrombosis and malfunctioning were recorded.ResultsFrom December 2000 to January 2009, 1,978 CVC insertional procedures were applied to 1,660 consecutive patients. The procedure was performed 580 times in patients with hematologic malignancies and 1,398 times those with solid tumors. A single-needle puncture of the vein was performed on 1,948 of 1,978 procedures (98.48%); only eighteen attempts among 1,978 failed (0.9%).No pneumotorax, no major bleeding, and no nerve puncture were reported; four cases (0.2%) showed self-limiting hematomas. The mean lifespan of CVC was 189.7 +/- 18.6 days (range 7-701). Symptomatic deep-vein thrombosis of the upper limbs developed in 48 patients (2.42%). Catheter-related infections occurred in 197 (9.96%) of the catheters inserted. They were successfully treated with antibiotics and only in 48 (2.9%) patients definitive CVC removal was required for infection and/or thrombosis or malfunctioning.ConclusionsThis study represents the largest published series of consecutive patients with cancer undergoing CVC insertion under US guidance; this procedure allowed the completion of the therapeutic program for 1,930/1,978 (97.6%) of the catheters inserted. The absence of pneumotorax and other major complications indicates that US guidance should be mandatory for CVC insertion in patients with cancer.

Introduction Cancer patients are presumed a frail group at high risk of contracting coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and vaccination represents a cornerstone in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. However, data on COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients are fragmentary and poor. Methods An observational study was conducted to evaluate the seropositivity rate and safety of a two-dose regimen of the BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccine in adult patients with solid cancer undergoing active anticancer treatment or whose treatment had been terminated within 6 months of the start of study. The control group was composed of healthy volunteers. Serum samples were evaluated for SARS-COV-2 antibodies prior vaccinations and 2-6 weeks after the administration of the second vaccine dose. Primary endpoint: seropositivity rate. Secondary endpoints: safety, factors influencing seroconversion, IgG titers of patients versus healthy volunteers, COVID-19 infection. Results Between 20 March 2021 and 12 June 2021, 293 consecutive cancer patients with solid tumors underwent a program of COVID-19 vaccinations: of these, 2 patients refused vaccination, 13 did not receive the second dose of the vaccine due to cancer progression and 21 had COVID-19 antibodies at baseline and were excluded. The 257 evaluable patients had a median age of 65 years (range 28-86), 66.15% with metastatic disease. Primary endpoint: seropositivity rate in patients was 75.88%, versus 100% in the control group. Secondary endpoints: no grade 3-4 side effects, no COVID-19 infections were reported. Patients median IgG titer was significantly lower than in the control group, male sex and active anticancer therapy influenced negatively seroconversion. BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccines were immunogenic in cancer patients, showing good safety profile.

BackgroundMalignant pleural effusion (MPE) is an extremely common problem affecting cancer patients, and thoracentesis is an essential procedure in an attempt to delineate the etiology of the fluid collections and to relieve symptoms in affected patients. One of the most common complications of thoracentesis is pneumothorax, which has been reported to occur in 20% to 39% of thoracenteses, with 15% to 50% of patients with pneumothorax requiring tube thoracostomy.The present study was carried out to assess whether thoracenteses in cancer patients performed with ultrasound (US) guidance are associated with a lower rates of pneumothorax and tube thoracostomy than those performed without US guidance.MethodsA total of 445 patients were recruited in this retrospective study. The medical records of 445 consecutive patients with cancer and MPE evaluable for this study, undergoing thoracentesis at the Oncology-Hematology and Internal Medicine Departments, Piacenza Hospital (Italy) were reviewed.ResultsFrom January 2005 to December 2011, in 310 patients (69.66%) thoracentesis was performed with US guidance and in 135 (30.34%) without it. On post-thoracentesis imaging performed in all these cases, 15 pneumothoraces (3.37%) were found; three of them (20%) required tube thoracostomy. Pneumothorax occurred in three out of 310 procedures (0.97%) performed with US guidance and in 12 of 135 procedures (8.89%) performed without it (P <0.0001). It must be emphasized that in all three patients with pneumothorax requiring tube thoracostomy, thoracentesis was performed without US guidance.ConclusionsThe routine use of US guidance during thoracentesis drastically reduces the rate of pneumothorax and tube thoracostomy in oncological patients, thus improving safety as demonstrated in this study.

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Abstract. Central nervous system (CNS) metastases from cancers of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) are rare, and occur in 0.16-0.69% of patients with gastric or gastro-esophageal (GE) junction cancer. Overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER-2) is associated with poor prognosis in the absence of HER-2-targeted therapy, and with an increased incidence of CNS metastases in patients with breast cancer. The role of HER-2 overexpression in CNS metastases is not well known in gastric adenocarcinoma. The purpose of the present retrospective study was to assess the incidence of CNS metastases and to evaluate the associations between the CNS and HER-2 status in a series of consecutive patients with gastric or GE junction cancer. Between 2007 and 2013, 300 patients with gastric cancer (GC) or gastroesophageal junction, were admitted to Piacenza General Hospital, Italy. These cases were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate CNS metastases. The metastases were diagnosed with imaging techniques performed on symptomatic patients. Gastric histological samples of patients with CNS metastases were reviewed and tested for HER-2. A total of 7 of the 300 patients (2.33%) with GC were observed to have CNS metastases and 6 (85.71%) had HER-2 positive disease. These patients exhibited a poor prognosis with a median overall survival rate of 4.1 months (range, 2.1-6.6 months). These results suggested there may be CNS recurrence susceptibility in patients with HER-2 positive GC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that associates CNS metastases and HER-2 status in gastric or GE junction cancer.

In recent years, the expenditure for cancer care is increased largely due to the increase in cancer prevalence, demographic changes and incorporation into clinical practice of new and expensive drugs. For these reasons, solutions to contain costs are necessaries. The drugs-related expenditure is proportionally higher in oncology than in other medical specialties and overcomes staffing costs for outpatient care. The introduction of additional measures to contain and reduce expenditures such as waste reduction and human resources optimization is highly desirable. On April 2013, we started a day-to-day monitoring of the consumption of drugs and developed an internal protocol for waste minimization, consisting of five measures. A computerized research through Medline, Cancerlit and Embase was performed, applying the words drug waste, cost-containment, Anticancer Drug Unit and stability instructions. Articles and abstracts were also identified by back-referencing from other relevant papers. Selected for the present review were papers published in English without limit of year. The day-to-day monitoring of the consumption of drugs and the internal protocol for waste minimization were able to achieve a saving of 15,700 every month. The projection of an annual cost-saving result of 188.00 corresponds to a recovery of 4 % on the spending for oncologic drugs. Our data show that in a proper structure working according to the standards of quality, safety and sterility, preserving and reusing the drug waste within the limits imposed by the datasheets, it is possible to achieve a cost-containment policy and produce durable benefits.