Current management of cancer pain in Italy: Expert opinion paper

Introduction Chronic pain and breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) have a high prevalence in all cancer types and cancer stages, combined with a significant physical, psychological, and economic burden. Despite efforts to improve appropriate management of cancer pain, a poor assessment and guilty undertreatment are still reported in many countries. The purpose of this expert opinion paper is to contribute to reduce and clarify these issues with a multidisciplinary perspective in order to share virtuous paths of care. Methods Common questions about cancer pain assessment and treatment were submitted to a multidisciplinary pool of Italian clinicians and the results were subsequently discussed and compared with the findings of the published literature. Conclusion Despite a dedicated law in Italy and effective treatments available, a low percentage of specialists assess pain and BTcP, defining the intensity with validated tools. Moreover, in accordance with the findings of the literature in many countries, the undertreatment of cancer pain is still prevalent. A multidisciplinary approach, more training programs for clinicians, personalised therapy drug formulations, and virtuous care pathways will be essential to improve cancer pain management.

Improved Personalised Neuroendocrine Tumours’ Diagnosis Predictive Power by New Receptor Somatostatin Image Processing Quantification

Although neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are intensively studied, their diagnosis and consequently personalised therapy management is still puzzling due to their tumoral heterogeneity. In their theragnosis algorithm, receptor somatostatin scintigraphy takes the central place, the diagnosis receptor somatostatin analogue (RSA) choice depending on laboratory experience and accessibility. However, in all cases, the results depend decisively on correct radiotracer tumoral uptake quantification, where unfortunately there are still unrevealed clues and lack of standardization. We propose an improved method to quantify the biodistribution of gamma-emitting RSA, using tissular corrected uptake indices. We conducted a bi-centric retrospective study on 101 patients with different types of NETs. Three uptake indices obtained after applying new corrections to areas of interest drawn for the tumour and for three reference organs (liver, spleen and lung) were statistically analysed. For the corrected pathological uptake indices, the results showed a significant decrease in the error of estimating the occurrence of errors and an increase in the diagnostic predictive power for NETs, especially in the case of lung-referring corrected index. In conclusion, these results support the importance of corrected uptake indices use in the analysis of 99mTcRSA biodistribution for a better personalised diagnostic accuracy of NETs patients.

PET-guided treatment for personalised therapy of Hodgkin lymphoma and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma

FDG-PET scanning has a central role in lymphoma staging and response assessment. There is a growing body of evidence that PET response assessment during and after initial systemic therapy can provide useful prognostic information, and PET response has an evolving role in guiding patient care. This review provides a perspective on the role of PET response assessment for individualised management of patients with the most common aggressive lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Wrist actigraphic approach in primary, secondary and tertiary care based on the principles of predictive, preventive and personalised (3P) medicine

Sleep quality and duration as well as activity-rest-cycles at individual level are crucial for maintaining physical and mental health. Although several methods do exist to monitor these parameters, optimal approaches are still under consideration and technological development. Wrist actigraphy is a non-invasive electro-physical method validated in the field of chronobiology to record movements and to allow for monitoring human activity-rest-cycles. Based on the continuous recording of motor activity and light exposure, actigraphy provides valuable information about the quality and quantity of the sleep–wake rhythm and about the amount of motor activity at day and night that is highly relevant for predicting a potential disease and its targeted prevention as well as personalisation of medical services provided to individuals in suboptimal health conditions and patients. Being generally used in the field of sleep medicine, actigraphy demonstrates a great potential to be successfully implemented in primary, secondary and tertiary care, psychiatry, oncology, and intensive care, military and sports medicines as well as epidemiological monitoring of behavioural habits as well as well-being medical support, amongst others. Prediction of disease development and individual outcomes Activity-rest-cycles have been demonstrated to be an important predictor for many diseases including but not restricted to the development of metabolic, psychiatric and malignant pathologies. Moreover, activity-rest-cycles directly impact individual outcomes in corresponding patient cohorts. Targeted prevention Data acquired by actigraphy are instrumental for the evidence-based targeted prevention by analysing individualised patient profiles including light exposure, sleep duration and quality, activity-rest-cycles, intensity and structure of motion pattern. Personalised therapy Wrist actigraphic approach is increasingly used in clinical care. Personalised measurements of sedation/agitation rhythms are useful for ICU patients, for evaluation of motor fatigue in oncologic patients, for an individual enhancement of performance in military and sport medicine. In the framework of personalised therapy intervention, patients can be encouraged to optimise their behavioural habits improving recovery and activity patterns. This opens excellent perspectives for the sleep-inducing medication and stimulants replacement as well as for increasing the role of participatory medicine by visualising and encouraging optimal behavioural patterns of the individual.

Wrist Actigraphic Approach in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Care Based on the Principles of Predictive, Preventive and Personalised (3P) Medicine

Sleep quality and duration as well as activity-rest-cycles at individual level are crucial for maintaining physical and mental health. Although several approaches do exist to monitor these parameters, optimal approaches are still under consideration and technological development.Wrist actigraphy is a non-invasive electro-physical method validated in the field of chronobiology to record movements and to allow for monitoring human activity-rest-cycles. Based on the continuous recording of motor activity and light exposure, actigraphy provides valuable information about the quality and quantity of the sleep-wake rhythm and about the amount of motor activity at day and night that is highly relevant for disease prediction, targeted prevention and personalisation of medical services. Being generally used in the field of sleep medicine, actigraphy demonstrates a great potential to be successfully implemented in primary, secondary and tertiary care, psychiatry, oncology, and intensive care, military and sports medicines as well as epidemiological monitoring of behavioural habits as well as well-being medical support, amongst others. Prediction of disease development and individual outcomesActivity-rest-cycles have been demonstrated to be an important predictor for many diseases including but not restricted to the development of metabolic, psychiatric and malignant pathologies. Moreover, activity-rest-cycles directly impact individual outcomes in corresponding patient cohorts. Targeted preventionData acquired by actigraphy are instrumental for the evidence-based targeted prevention by analysing individualised patient profiles including light exposure, sleep duration and quality, activity-rest-cycles, intensity and structure of motion pattern. Personalised TherapyWrist actigraphic approach is increasingly used in clinical care. Personalised measurements of sedation/agitation rhythms are useful for ICU-patients, for evaluation of motor fatigue in oncologic patients, for an individual enhancement of performance in military and sport medicine. In the framework of personalised therapy intervention, patients can be encouraged to optimise their behavioural habits improving recovery and activity patterns. This opens excellent perspectives for the sleep-inducing medication and stimulants replacement as well as for increasing the role of participatory medicine by visualisation and encouraging favourable behavioural patterns of the individual.

Update on Histological Reporting Changes in Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Purpose of Review Classification and nomenclature of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) have frequently changed over the last years. These changes reflect both increasing knowledge and international standardisation. Recent Findings The most recent changes in the Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic system induced the concept of well-differentiated NET with high proliferation rate (NET G3), explaining partially the heterogeneity of G3 NEN. Even if the nomenclature in pulmonary NEN is still different, the terms ‘carcinoid’ and ‘atypical carcinoid’ are widely overlapping with NET G1 and NET G2. Molecular data shows an additional heterogeneity both in well-differentiated NET and poorly differentiated NEC. However, no studies are available demonstrating clinical usefulness yet. Summary The heterogeneity of NEN regarding the organ of origin, differentiation and molecular subtypes make development of personalised therapy a challenge needing more international and interdisciplinary collaborations and clinical trials allowing stratification according to biological subgroups.

Characteristics of the roles of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities as a basis for their individual therapy

Background: ‪Women enjoy a variety of social roles during their lives. Among the commonly known ones, which include e.g. the roles of wives and mothers, there are also those that radically change the scenario of one’s past life. These include the role of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. After all, the hardships associated with caring for them and with their upbringing, influence their mothers' perception of the world, change the existing family and professional social relations, determine the choice of values, and limit or block the goals set to date. It seemed interesting to the author of the study to recognise the roles of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. Material and methods: ‪Their categorisation revealing the nature of a given role was possible owing to the conducted research. It was attended by 104 mothers of children with intellectual disabilities who answered a series of questions included in the interview questionnaires. A hermeneutical analysis of their answers made it possible to describe a given role in detail. Among these four can be distinguished which are conventionally defined as: «REBEL», «RATIONALIST», «SHAM» and «RESOURCEFUL». Results: ‪These roles are fundamentally different from each other, indicating the traits that characterise mothers bringing up children with intellectual disabilities. Identifying oneself with one of them may show both the desired features of the role played and indicate the destructive elements which negatively determine the course of their previous lives. Conclusions: ‪This is the basis for personalised therapy dedicated to mothers of children with intellectual disabilities.