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This study aims to establish the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in breast cancer (BC) patients, focusing on staging and anti-cancer treatment. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the incidence of AF in BC patients and compare this incidence to other cancers. Furthermore, we evaluated the occurrence of AF as an adverse effect of biological therapies vs. non-biological therapies vs. biological therapies + non-biological therapies in BC. Finally, we compared the incidence of AF in early BC and metastatic BC. Thirty studies were included. Twenty-two studies focused on BC, encompassing 166,271 patients. In the BC group, 2.7% of patients developed AF, while in the “all cancer” group, 5.8% of patients developed AF. In addition, there was no difference between different types of therapies (p = 0.61) and between early and metastatic BC (p = 0.57). The type of anti-cancer therapy and the staging of BC does not influence AF’s occurrence in this neoplastic disease.

Background: Synovial sarcoma is a relatively chemosensitive type of soft tissue sarcoma and it often metastasizes to the lung. We investigated the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with high-grade synovial sarcoma at their first lung metastasectomy (LMTS). Methods: Forty-six HGSS patients had their first LMTS at our institute (Rizzoli Orthopedic Hospital, Bologna, Italy) between 2000 and 2020. We divided them into two groups: (1) those undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 24) and (2) those not receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 22). The primary outcome was a median survival at 32.5 (IQR 18.0–82.7) median follow-up. The disease-free interval was calculated at time zero (DFI0, interval between the diagnosis of the primary tumor and the first CT-diagnosed lung metastasis) and at any further lung relapse (DFI1–3). T0 was defined as the time at first LMTS and T1–T3 referred to the time of further metastasectomy. Results: Freedom from SS-specific mortality at 60 months was significantly higher in patients without chemotherapy (50.0% (33.0–76.0%) vs. 20.8% (9.55%–45.4%), p = 0.01). Chemotherapy was associated with a higher risk of SS-specific mortality at multivariable Cox regression (HR 2.8, p = 0.02). Furthermore, DFI0 ≤ 6 months, female sex, age > 40 years, and primary tumor > 10 cm increased the risk of death by about four, six, >three, and >five times, respectively. Conclusions. Adjuvant chemotherapy did not show any advantage in terms of freedom from SS-specific mortality in HGSS patients. Further larger studies are necessary to confirm our findings.

Background and aim. Cancer and atrial fibrillation (AF) may be associated, and anticoagulation, either with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) or direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), is necessary to prevent thromboembolic events by reducing the risk of bleeding. The log incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95% confidence interval were used as index statistics. Higgin’s I2 test was adopted to assess statistical inconsistencies by considering interstudy variations, defined by values ranging from 0 to 100%. I2 values of less than 40% are associated with very low heterogeneity among the studies; values between 40% and 75% indicate moderate heterogeneity, and those greater than 75% suggest severe heterogeneity. The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare the safety and efficacy of VKAs and DOACs in oncologic patients with AF. Methods. A meta-analysis was conducted comparing VKAs to DOACs in terms of thromboembolic events and bleeding. A meta-regression was conducted to investigate the differences in efficacy and safety between four different DOACs. Moreover, a sub-analysis on active-cancer-only patients was conducted. Results. A total of eight papers were included. The log incidence rate ratio (IRR) for thromboembolic events between the two groups was −0.69 (p < 0.005). The meta-regression did not reveal significant differences between the types of DOACs (p > 0.9). The Log IRR was −0.38 (p = 0.008) for ischemic stroke, −0.43 (p = 0.02) for myocardial infarction, −0.39 (p = 0.45) for arterial embolism, and −1.04 (p = 0.003) for venous thromboembolism. The log IRR for bleeding events was −0.43 (p < 0.005), and the meta-regression revealed no statistical difference (p = 0.7). The log IRR of hemorrhagic stroke, major bleeding, and clinically relevant non-major bleeding between the VKA and DOAC groups was −0.51 (p < 0.0001), −0.45 (p = 0.03), and 0.0045 (p = 0.97), respectively. Similar results were found in active-cancer patients for all the endpoints except for clinically-relevant non-major bleedings. Conclusions. DOACs showed better efficacy and safety outcomes than VKAs. No difference was found between types of DOACs.

The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients undergoing resection of pulmonary oligometastases. A retrospective analysis on 141 patients undergoing a first pulmonary metastasectomy in a single center was carried out. Two distinct analysis were performed subdividing patients according to their NLR ratio and CRP level. The main outcomes were survival and time to recurrence. At completion of follow-up 74 patients were still alive (52.5%). Subdividing patients according to their NLR yielded a significant difference in five-year progression-free survival (PFS, NLR &lt, 4:32% vs. NLR &ge, 4:18%, p = 0.01). When subdivided by their CRP levels, patients with preoperative CRP &lt, 5 mg/L demonstrated higher values of five-year overall survival (OS, 57% vs. 34%, p = 0.006) and five-year PFS (35% vs. 22%, p = 0.04). At multivariate analysis, level of neutrophils (p = 0.009) and lung comorbidities (p = 0.021) were independent predictors of death, whereas preoperative CRP (p = 0.002), multiple metastases (p = 0.003) and presence of lung comorbidities (p = 0.001) were independent predictors of recurrence. NLR and CRP are important predictors of prognostic outcome in patients undergoing pulmonary metastasectomy.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia, increasing with age and comorbidities. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep disorder more common in older men. It has been shown that OSA is linked to AF. Nonetheless, the prevalence of OSA in patients with AF remains unknown because OSA is significantly underdiagnosed. This review, including 54,271 patients, carried out a meta-analysis to investigate the association between OSA and AF. We also performed a meta-regression to explore cofactors influencing this correlation. A strong link was found between these two disorders. The incidence of AF is 88% higher in patients with OSA. Age and hypertension independently strengthened this association, indicating that OSA treatment could help reduce AF recurrence. Further research is needed to confirm these findings. Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia, increasing with age and comorbidities. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a regulatory respiratory disorder of partial or complete collapse of the upper airways during sleep leading to recurrent pauses in breathing. OSA is more common in older men. Evidence exists that OSA is linked to AF. Nonetheless, the prevalence of OSA in patients with AF remains unknown because OSA is underdiagnosed. In order to investigate the incidence of AF in OSA patients, we carried out a meta-analysis including 20 scientific studies with a total of 54,271 subjects. AF was present in 4801 patients of whom 2203 (45.9%) had OSA and 2598 (54.1%) did not. Of a total of 21,074 patients with OSA, 2203 (10.5%) had AF and 18,871 (89.5%) did not. The incidence of AF was 88% higher in patients with OSA. We performed a meta-regression to explore interacting factors potentially influencing the occurrence of AF in OSA. Older age and hypertension independently strengthened this association. The clinical significance of our results is that patients with OSA should be referred early to the cardiologist. Further research is needed for the definition of the mechanisms of association between AF and OSA.

Patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) might be more susceptible to infection from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and have higher mortality rates. Nevertheless, the risk of mortality has not been previously quantified. The aim of this meta-analysis is to quantify the risk of mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. A meta-analysis was conducted analyzing the impact of (1) sex, (2) age, (3) CVD with coronary artery disease (CAD), (4) CAD alone, (5) CVD without CAD, (6) hypertension, (7) cerebrovascular diseases, and (8) diabetes on mortality. Relative risk was assessed for dichotomous variables, mean difference for continuous variables. Twenty-six studies were included, encompassing 8497 patients. Males had 16% higher risk of mortality than females (p < 0.05) and elderly patients had higher chance of dying than younger patients (p < 0.0001). Patients with overall CVD have a 1.96-fold higher mortality risk (p < 0.0001). CAD increases risk of mortality by 1.90-fold (p < 0.05). CVD-CAD were found to increase risk up to 2.03-fold (p < 0.05). Hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and diabetes increase the risk of death up to 1.73-fold, 1.76-fold and 1.59-fold, respectively (p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, p < 0.05, respectively). Sex, age, presence of CAD and/or other types of CVD, hypertension, cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus increase mortality in patients with COVID-19.

We test the hypothesis that a model including clinical and computed tomography (CT) features may allow discrimination between benign and malignant lung nodules in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). Seventy-one patients with STS undergoing their first lung metastasectomy were examined. The performance of multiple logistic regression models including CT features alone, clinical features alone, and combined features, was tested to evaluate the best model in discriminating malignant from benign nodules. The likelihood of malignancy increased by more than 11, 2, 6 and 7 fold, respectively, when histological synovial sarcoma sub-type was associated with the following CT nodule features: size &ge, 5.6 mm, well defined margins, increased size from baseline CT, and new onset at preoperative CT. Likewise, in the case of grade III primary tumor, the odds ratio (OR) increased by more than 17 times when the diameter of pulmonary nodules (PNs) was &gt, 5.6 mm, more than 13 times with well-defined margins, more than 7 times with PNs increased from baseline CT, and more than 20 times when there were new-onset nodules. Finally, when CT nodule was &ge, 5.6 in size, it had well-defined margins, it increased in size from baseline CT, and when new onset nodules at preoperative CT were concomitant to residual primary tumor R2, the risk of malignancy increased by more than 10, 6, 25 and 28 times, respectively. The combination of clinical and CT features has the highest predictive value for detecting the malignancy of pulmonary nodules in patients with soft tissue sarcoma, allowing early detection of nodule malignancy and treatment options.