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Early detection of disease progression is a crucial issue in the management of cancer patients, especially in metastatic settings. Currently, treatment selection mostly relies on criteria based on radiologic evaluations (RECIST). The aim of the present retrospective study is to evaluate the potential inclusion of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in hybrid criteria. CTC counts from a total of 160 patients with different metastatic tumors were analyzed for this purpose. In our cohort, 73 patients were affected by breast cancer, 69 by colorectal cancer and 18 by prostate cancer. PFS and OS were evaluated according to the corresponding prediction of disease progression by CTCs and RECIST criteria. In breast cancer, CTC-I has an important impact on the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) values. When CTC-I predicted earlier than RECIST-I, the disease progression, the PFS and OS were shorter with respect to the opposite case. In particular, PFS was 11 (5–16) vs. 34 (23–45)—with p < 0.001—and OS was 80 (22–138) vs. 116 (43–189), p = 0.33. The results suggest a promising role of CTCs as complementary information which could significantly improve the clinical outcomes, and they encourage consideration of future trials to evaluate new hybrid criteria, particularly for patients with breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Cefiderocol is a novel siderophore cephalosporin with promising activity against most carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CRGNB). However, extensive postmarketing experiences are lacking. This study aimed to analyse the early experience on cefiderocol postmarketing use at three tertiary care hospitals in Italy. Methods We retrospectively included patients with infections caused by CRGNB treated with cefiderocol at three Italian tertiary care hospitals from 1 March 2021 to 30 June 2022. A multivariate Cox model was used to identify predictors of 30 day mortality. A propensity score (PS) analysis with inverse probability weighting (IPW) was also performed to compare the treatment effect of cefiderocol monotherapy (CM) versus combination regimens (CCRs). Results The cohort included 142 patients (72% male, median age 67 years, with 89 cases of Acinetobacter baumannii infection, 22 cases of Klebsiella pneumoniae , 27 cases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 4 of other pathogens). The 30 day all-cause mortality was 37% (52/142). We found no association between bacterial species and mortality. In multivariate analysis, a Charlson Comorbidity Index >3 was an independent predictor of mortality (HR 5.02, 95% CI 2.37–10.66, P  < 0.001). In contrast, polymicrobial infection (HR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21–0.82, P  < 0.05) was associated with lower mortality. There was no significant difference in mortality between patients receiving CM (n  = 70) and those receiving a CCR (n  = 72) (33% versus 40%, respectively), even when adjusted for IPW-PS (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.63–1.96, P  = 0.71). Conclusions Real-life data confirm that cefiderocol is a promising option against carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative infections, even as monotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of innovative methods for the design of heating, cooling, and heat storage devices has been mainly oriented in the last decade toward the use of nanofluids, metal foams coupled with working fluids, or phase change materials (PCMs). A network of nine Italian universities achieved significant results and innovative ideas on these topics by developing a collaborative project in the last four years, where different approaches and investigation techniques were synergically employed. They evaluated the quantitative extent of the enhancement in the heat transfer and thermal performance of a heat exchanger or thermal energy storage system with the combined use of nanofluids, metal foams, and PCMs. The different facets of this broad research program are surveyed in this article. Special focus is given to the comparison between the mesoscopic to macroscopic modeling of heat transfer in metal foams and nanofluids, as well as to the experimental data collected and processed in the development of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay embraces the idea that Carlo Levi was a poet even before he was a painter or a prose writer. His masterpiece (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli), infact, could be read as an expandend prose poem by the archaic appearance. During the last two years of confinement in Lucania (from 1935 to 1936), Levi composed some poems in his notebook, later collected under the title Eterne lontananze. They represent some precious evidences of a real descent into an underworld out of history: warm testimonials that will be amplified, but also filtered in the Cristo, written after ten years. By commenting a selection of these poems, it's possible to point out themes, symbols, perspectives by which the author observed that reality, dominated by death and painted with black color, still putting trust in poetry as synonymous with freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]