Centro di Riferimento Oncologico

Accurate assessment of axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer is essential for prognosis and treatment planning. Staging and surgical management have evolved from axillary lymph node dissection to sentinel lymph node biopsy to minimize morbidity. However, sentinel lymph node biopsy has non-negligible morbidity, and more than 70% of biopsies are negative, calling into question its routine use. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to detect and stage lymph node metastases in situ, but its sensitivity and specificity are moderate to poor. Few studies have employed artificial intelligence to detect lymph node metastases on MRI images, and none have used an integrative multidata approach (IMA), defined as modeling the combination of clinical and laboratory data with multiparametric MRI.
The primary objective of this retrospective observational study is to improve the accuracy of detecting lymph node involvement in breast cancer using IMA. The secondary objective is to allow longitudinal monitoring of the effects of neoadjuvant therapy on lymph node involvement

In locally advanced rectal cancer the pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (nCRT) is associated with a favourable long-term prognosis. The identification of markers predictive of response to therapy would therefore optimise treatment by allowing personalised therapy. It has been shown that the genetic profile of the patient could influence the activation of the immune system in combination with chemoradiation therapy in targeting tumour cells. In addition, genetic features of molecular pathways correlated with response to chemoradiotherapy, may in turn affect the probability of a good response to treatment in these patients, but also the occurrence of adverse events. The main objective of the study is to define the role of genetic markers related to immune system activation and other molecular pathways in predicting the complete pathological response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

In the case of a pre-operative diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), sentinel lymph node biopsy is generally not indicated whereas it is considered standard clinical practice for patients with clinical stage I-II infiltrating breast cancer who have clinically negative axillary lymph nodes or clinically suspicious lymph nodes with negative needle aspiration findings. It is not uncommon that, in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ at preoperative diagnosis, there may be an upgrade on definitive histological examination due to the identification of foci of infiltration (about one-fifth of cases), requiring axillary lymph node biopsy in a second surgery. Prospective studies have shown that the sentinel lymph node identification rate after recent breast-conserving surgery is suboptimal. With regard to the false negative rate (FNR), several studies demonstrated that it could be associated with different techniques used for lymph node identification. Lymph node biopsy by Indocyanine green (ICG) is capable of identifying the sentinel lymph node, however, there are no data in literature on the permanence of ICG in the lymph node system. The knowledge of this data would allow the application of this method, already considered safe for the identification of the sentinel lymph node at the time of breast surgery, also in those situations in which the sentinel lymph node biopsy is postponed due to the upgrade of definitive histological diagnosis from carcinoma in situ to infiltrating/micro-infiltrating carcinoma.The main objective of this trial is to evaluate the permanence of fluorescence at the level of axillary lymph nodes 3 weeks after subcutaneous injection in patients who are candidates to radical axillary surgery. Marking the sentinel lymph node before breast surgery in cases of DCIS with risk factors could reduce the false negative rate, allowing to increase the accuracy of the procedure in identifying the lymph node potentially involved by metastatic infiltration. In addition, the identification of the sentinel lymph node in patients who are candidates to radical axillary surgery, could increase the sensitivity of the surgery in staging axillary disease and could make the lymph node exeresis more targeted, reducing the morbidity of the surgery resulting in a better outcome for the patient.