Browsing by Author "Ciccarese, Chiara"

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    Prognostic Value of Beta-Tubulin-3 and c-Myc in Muscle Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder
    (Public Library of Science, 2015) Massari, Francesco; Bria, Emilio; Ciccarese, Chiara; Munari, Enrico; Modena, Alessandra; Zambonin, Valentina; Sperduti, Isabella; Artibani, Walter; Cheng, Liang; Martignoni, Guido; Tortora, Giampaolo; Brunelli, Matteo; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, IU School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND: To date, putative prognostic biomarkers have shown limited utility from the clinical perspective for bladder urothelial carcinoma. Herein, the expression of beta-tubulin-3 and c-Myc was evaluated to determine their prognostic potential. METHODS: In formalin fixed-paraffin embedded blocks, immunohistochemical expression of c-Myc and beta-tubulin-3 was evaluated. H score ranging from 0 to 300 was obtained by multiplying the percentage of positive cells by intensity (0-3); c-Myc and beta-tubulin-3 expression was defined: 0: negative, 1: weakly positive, 2: strongly positive. RESULTS: beta-tubulin-3 and c-Myc immunoexpression was available for 46 cases. At the univariate analysis, node-involvement, beta-tubulin-3 and c-Myc overexpression discriminate shorter DFS (HR 2.19, p = 0.043; HR 3.10, p = 0.24 and HR 3.05, p = 0.011, respectively); 2-yrs DFS log-rank analysis according to low versus high level of immunoexpression were statistically significant; beta-tubulin-3, 53% low vs 12.7% high (p = value 0.02) and c-Myc 28 low vs 8 high (p-value 0.007). Patients displaying negative beta-tubulin-3/c-Myc had statistically significant better 2-yrs DFS than those with mixed expression or double positivity (54.5% versus 18.7% versus 0%, log-rank p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: c-Myc and beta-tubulin-3 show improvement for prognostic risk stratification in patients with muscle invasive bladder urothelial carcinoma. These molecular pathways may also be candidate to improve predictiveness to targeted therapies.
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    Prostate cancer glands with cribriform architecture and with glomeruloid features should be considered as Gleason pattern 4 and not pattern 3
    (2016-06) Minardi, Daniele; Mazzucchelli, Roberta; Scarpelli, Marina; Massari, Francesco; Ciccarese, Chiara; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio; Cheng, Liang; Montironi, Rodolfo; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, IU School of Medicine
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    Role of STAT3 pathway in genitourinary tumors
    (Future Science Group, 2015-11-01) Santoni, Matteo; Conti, Alessandro; Piva, Francesco; Massari, Francesco; Ciccarese, Chiara; Burattini, Luciano; Cheng, Liang; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio; Scarpelli, Marina; Santini, Daniele; Tortora, Giampaolo; Cascinu, Stefano; Montironi, Rodolfo; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, IU School of Medicine
    The STAT3 is often dysregulated in genitourinary tumors. In prostate cancer, STAT3 activation correlates with Gleason score and pathological stage and modulates cancer stem cells and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In addition, STAT3 promotes the progression from carcinoma in situ to invasive bladder cancer and modulates renal cell carcinoma angiogenesis by increasing the expression of HIF1α and VEGF. STAT3 is also involved in the response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors sunitinib and axitinib, in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and to second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide in patients with advanced prostate cancer. In this review, we describe the role of STAT3 in genitourinary tumors, thus describing its potential for future therapeutic strategies.
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    Targeting fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) pathway in renal cell carcinoma
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015) Massari, Francesco; Ciccarese, Chiara; Santoni, Matteo; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio; Scarpelli, Marina; Montironi, Rodolfo; Cheng, Liang; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, IU School of Medicine
    Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) pathway is involved in driving vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-independent tumor angiogenesis, as a compensatory mechanism to escape VEGF-targeted therapies. Therefore, targeting FGF/FGFR axis seems to be a promising strategy in order to inhibit tumor angiogenesis and reduce resistance to VEGF receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This editorial is focused on the role of FGF/FGFR pathway in renal cell carcinoma and on the ongoing trials of emerging agents targeting this axis.