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Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a very rare disease accounting for less than 2% of all thyroid malignancies and associated to a dismal prognosis. The median survival is between 3 to 9 months with less than 10% of patients alive at 3 years after the time of diagnosis. This low cure rate is due to the late clinical presentation as a bulky unresectable tumour mass often associated with synchronous lung metastases (20-50%). A multimodality treatment consisting in a radical surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy is reported to be associated with better clinical outcomes while young age (65 years), tumour size (6.5 cm) and absence of distant metastases at time of diagnosis are recognized as strong prognostic factors of survival. We report the case of a 65 year-old man who was referred to our hospital for an ATC which extended to the external right tracheal wall and muscolar layer of esophagus. The patient underwent radical thyroidectomy with bilateral neck dissection followed by 3 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy (Cisplatin /Epirubicin) and subsequent radiochemotherapy with Cisplatin as radiosensitizer. At more than 6 years since diagnosis the patient is still alive without evidence of local recurrence or distant metastases. Therefore, aggressive multimodality treatment after radical surgery might improve clinical outcomes and perhaps should be tested in prospective clinical trials.

The aim of the article is to analyse patterns of value system sharing along food chains, so as to explore the agrifood enterprises capacity to be competitive and sustainable. The research focused 15 on three food chains: potato, fruit, and Grana cheese of the Emilia Romagna region. The article adopts the value system approach. The methodology is aimed at creating a consolidated financial statement for each food chain so as to re-create the chain operating profit and identify how this is shared among the different 20 food chain stages. The analysis is carried out on 189 enterprises for the potato chain, 187 for the fruit chain, and 203 for the cheese chain. The number of enterprises was invariable over five years (2003–2007), leading to 2,900 financial statement analysis. The chains analysed show differences. In the potato and fruit chains 25 35% of value is created by distribution, whereas in the cheese chain only, it is 13.6%. Over the five years, value decreases 5% in fruit and potato and 9% in cheese. The lack of adequate strategic food chain partnership allows an increasing retail market power over the whole chain at the expense of the primary sector entailing a 30 declining sustainability for all chain actors.

Background In the last years, functional imaging has given a significant contribution to the clinical decision-making of biochemically relapsed prostate cancer (PCa). Hereby, we present a prospective study aiming to validate the role of [18F]Fluoro-Methyl Choline ([18F]FMCH) PET/CT in the selection of PCa patients suitable for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Methods Patients with biochemical recurrence limited up to three lesions revealed by [18F]FMCH PET/CT were enrolled in the present study and treated with SBRT on all active lesions. Systemic therapy-free survival since the [18F]FMCH PET/CT was considered as the primary endpoint. Results Forty-six patients were evaluated, and a total of 67 lesions were treated. After a median follow-up of 28.9 months, systemic therapy was started in 30 patients (65.2%) and median systemic therapy-free survival was 39.1 months (95% CI 6.5–68.6); 6, 12, and 24-month ratios were 93.5%, 73.9%, and 63.1%, respectively. At univariate Cox regression analysis, Delta PSA demonstrated an impact on systemic therapy-free survival (p Conclusions Based on our findings, [18F]FMCH PET/CT can identify oligometastatic prostate cancer patients suitable for SBRT, resulting in a systemic therapy-free survival of 39.1 months.