Search

Background Methods Results Conclusions Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) often presents with aggressive clinical behaviour that may require multimodality treatment based on reliable prognostication. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic ability of five online web‐based tools to predict the clinical behaviour of OTSCC resection and biopsy samples.A total of 135 OTSCC resection cases and 33 OTSCC biopsies were included to predict recurrence and survival. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC), χ2 tests, and calibration plots constructed to estimate the prognostic power of each tool.The tool entitled ‘Prediction of risk of Locoregional Recurrences in Early OTSCC’ presented an accuracy of 82%. The tool, ‘Head & Neck Cancer Outcome Calculator’ for 10‐year cancer‐related mortality had an accuracy 77% and AUC 0.858. The other tool entitled ‘Cancer Survival Rates’ for 5‐year mortality showed an accuracy of 74% and AUC of 0.723. For biopsy samples, ‘Cancer Survival Prediction Calculators’ predicted the recurrence free survival with an accuracy of 70%.Web‐based tools can aid in clinical decision making of OTSCC. Three of five online web‐based tools could predict recurrence risk and cancer‐related mortality in resected OTSCC and one tool could help in clinical decision making for biopsy samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Oral cancer represents one of the most common malignancies in humans. Its prognosis is still poor, despite the most recent improvements in therapies. An increasing attention is placed on the role of programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) in the tumour immunity and its potential function as a marker for tumour prognosis. Whether PD‐L1 expression is a prognostic factor for the poor outcomes in oral squamous cell carcinoma is still controversial. This study aimed to investigate, through a meta‐analysis, a potential correlation between PD‐L1 expression and the prognostic outcomes in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and methods: The studies were identified by searching PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and were assessed by two of the authors. After the selection process, 11 articles met eligibility criteria and were included in the meta‐analysis. Quality assessment of studies was performed according to the REMARK guidelines, and the risk of biases across studies was investigated through Q and I2 tests. Meta‐analysis was performed to investigate the association between the PD‐L1 expression either overall survival (OS), disease‐free survival (DFS), disease‐specific survival (DSS), gender and lymph node metastasis. Results: A total of 1060 patients were analysed in the 11 studies included in the meta‐analysis. Pooled analysis revealed that the expression of PD‐L1 did not correlate with poor OS (HR, 0.60; 95% CI: [0.33, 1.10]; P = 0.10), DFS (HR, 0.62; 95% CI: [0.21, 1.88]; P = 0.40), DSS (HR, 2.05; 95% CI: [0.53, 7.86]; P = 0.29 and lymph node metastasis (HR, 1.15; 95% CI: [0.74, 1.81]; P = 0.53). Furthermore, results of the meta‐analysis showed that high expression of PD‐L1 is two times more frequent in female patients (OR, 0.5; 95% CI: [0.36, 0.69]; P < 0.0001) compared to males. For all the three outcomes analysed, a high rate of heterogeneity was detected (I2 > 50%). Discussion: High PD‐L1 expression did not correlate with poor prognosis of patients suffering for oral squamous cell carcinoma. Studies published on the topic showed a significant variation in results, limiting the use of PD‐L1 expression by immunohistochemistry as prognostic biomarker in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Robotic surgery has contributed greatly to the shift from traditional surgery to minimally invasive surgery. Urology is the major field of application of robotic surgery. Several urological procedures, especially radical prostatectomy, benefit from the use of robotic surgery., Methods: Non-systematic research of the literature was performed using "Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy" and "Robotic platforms" as keywords to understand the actual situation and the future perspectives of this technology in prostate cancer treatment., Key Content and Findings: The robotic platform landscape is constantly evolving. DaVinci has always been the mainstay in this field, particularly after the advent of the new single port platforms. New platforms are emerging, providing an alternative option to the well-known DaVinci system. Since in literature, few studies compare the use of different robotic platforms, their application in urological procedures is not yet widely used, for both oncological and non-oncological procedures. Furthermore, artificial intelligence begins to play a role in this landscape and could be useful for future developments. So further studies are warranted to give a full comprehension of the whole scenario., Conclusions: This review aims to analyze the current state of the use of robotic platforms in urology, particularly in radical prostatectomy, and to understand the evolution.

Objective: The role of lymph node dissection (LND) is still controversial in patients with renal cell carcinoma undergoing surgery. We aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the literature about the effect of LND on survival, prognosis, surgical outcomes, as well as patient selection and available LND templates., Methods: Recent literature (from January 2011 to December 2021) was assessed through PubMed and MEDLINE databases. A narrative review of most relevant articles was provided., Results: The frequencies in which LNDs are being carried out are decreasing due to an increase in minimally invasive and nephron sparing surgery. Moreover, randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses failed to show any survival advantage of LND versus no LND. However, retrospective studies suggest a survival benefit of LND in high-risk patients (bulky tumors, T3-4 stage, and cN1 patients). Moreover, extended LND might provide important staging information, which could be of interest for adjuvant treatment planning., Conclusion: No level 1 evidence of any survival advantage deriving from LND is currently available in literature. Thus, the role of LND is limited to staging purposes. However, low grade evidence suggests a possible role of LND in high-risk patients. Randomized clinical trials are warranted to corroborate these findings., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 Editorial Office of Asian Journal of Urology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.)

Odontogenic tumors are rare lesions with unknown etiopathogenesis. Most of them are benign, but local aggressiveness, infiltrative potential, and high recurrence rate characterize some entities. The MAP-kinase pathway activation can represent a primary critical event in odontogenic tumorigenesis. Especially, the BRAF V600E mutation has been involved in 80-90% of ameloblastic lesions, offering a biological rationale for developing new targeted therapies. The study aims to evaluate the BRAF V600E mutation in odontogenic lesions, comparing three different detection methods and focusing on the Sequenom MassARRAY System. 81 surgical samples of odontogenic lesions were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis, Sanger Sequencing, and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight mass spectrometry (Sequenom). The BRAF V600E mutation was revealed only in ameloblastoma samples. Moreover, the presence of BRAF V600E was significantly associated with the mandibular site (ρ = 0.627; P value <0.001) and the unicystic histotype (ρ = 0.299, P value <0.001). However, any significant difference of 10-years disease-free survival time was not revealed. Finally, Sequenom showed to be a 100% sensitive and 98.1% specific, suggesting its high-performance diagnostic accuracy. These results suggest the MAP-kinase pathway could contribute to ameloblastic tumorigenesis. Moreover, they could indicate the anatomical specificity of the driving mutations of mandibular ameloblastomas, providing a biological rational for developing new targeted therapies. Finally, the high diagnostic accuracy of Sequenom was confirmed., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are part of the tumor microenvironment, broadly divided into M1 and M2 phenotypes. M1 macrophages, commonly identified by staining the CD11c antigen, have an antitumour immunity role, while M2 macrophages, expressing the CD163 antigen, are involved in tumor progression. Little is known about M1 and M2 phenotypes in the context of the oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (OTSCC), a subgroup of oral cancer with peculiar clinical behavior. This study evaluated the macrophage polarization in OTSCC specimens to examine their prognostic relevance. To this end, specimens from 71 OTSCC patients graded as G1 or G3 were investigated for CD11c and CD163 expression. Immunohistochemical staining of TAMs was evaluated in tumor nests, tumor inflammation area (TIA), and tumor stroma. To analyze the expression of CD11c and CD163, the percentage of positive cells was scored as 0 (negative), 1 (<10%), 2 (11% to 50%), 3 (51% to 80%), and 4 (>80%). The staining intensity was scored as 0 (negative), 1 (weak), 2 (moderate), and 3 (intense). Higher expression of both CD163+ and CD11c+ macrophages in inflammation area positively correlated with G3 grade, both in extension and intensity. Focusing on G3 tumors, survival curves showed better disease-free survival in patients with high CD11c expression in the TIA. Presence of CD163 expression in TIA was associated with worse disease-free survival. This study evaluated, for the first time, the distribution of M1 and M2 macrophages in relation to the pathologic grade in OTSCC, highlighting the prognostic relevance of analyzing the localization of TAMs., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common head and neck malignancy, characterised by high invasive capacity, lymph node metastasis, and high recurrence rate. Among the morphological features of oral cancer, the tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia has gained growing interest in the last years. Eosinophils are a minor subpopulation of leukocytes, representing 1-3% of all circulating white blood cells. The presence of high levels of eosinophils is associated with several diseases, but their role in cancer pathophysiology is controversial. In particular, an uncertain and contradictory relationship exists between the exact role of tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia and oral cancer development. Many studies have shown that tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia increases both in the progression of oral potentially malignant disorders as well as in the grade and stage progression of oral cancer. Despite this, both negative and positive prognostic outcomes have been associated with eosinophil infiltration. The heterogeneous results may be partially due both to several methodological inconsistencies and to an incorrect interpretation of the physiological role of eosinophils. Therefore, further studies to elucidate the contribution of eosinophil infiltration are needed, focusing on the existence of eosinophil subpopulations regulated by the cancer immune microenvironment. Furthermore, the correct reporting of prognostic marker research is encouraged, in order to ensure the reproducibility and the comparability of the results from different studies.

Background: Mutations of the tumour-suppressor gene TP53 are the most frequent somatic genomic alterations in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, it is not yet clear whether specific TP53 mutations bear distinct clinical and pathophysiological significance in different HNSCC subgroups., Methods: A systematic bioinformatics appraisal of TP53 mutations was performed on 415 HNSCC cases available on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The following features were analysed and correlated with known clinicopathological variables: mutational profile of TP53, location (within secondary structure and predicted domains of p53 protein) and well-known hotspot mutations. Interactome-genome-transcriptome network analysis highlighted different gene networks. An algorithm was generated to develop a new prognostic classification system based on patients' overall survival., Results: TP53 mutations in HNSCCs exhibited distinct differences in different anatomical sites. The mutational profile of TP53 was an independent prognostic factor in HNSCC. High risk of death mutations, identified by our novel classification algorithm, was an independent prognostic factor in TCGA HNSCC database. Finally, network analysis suggested that distinct p53 molecular pathways exist in a site- and mutation-specific manner., Conclusions: The mutational profile of TP53 may serve as an independent prognostic factor in HNSCC patients, and is associated with distinctive site-specific biological networks.

Purpose: Epidemiological data of odontogenic tumours (OT) are conflicting, with significant differences among the countries. This study aims to evaluate incidence and prevalence of OTs in the Marche population in a period of 25 years, according to 4th Edition of WHO Classification., Methods: In this study, only patients of Marche region treated for OTs were considered. Data were retrieved from Institute of Pathology, Marche Polytechnic University, Italy. Because this is the only tertiary referral centre for Head and Neck pathology within Marche region, the patient sample could be considered well representative of this area. From each case, age, sex, site, diagnosis and relapses were recorded., Results: Overall, 100 patients were treated for OTs from 1994 to 2018 in Marche region. The annual incidence rate ranged from 0.13 to 0.39 per 100,000, while life prevalence was 6.50 per 100,000. Mean age of onset for primary OTs was 49.7 ± 20.1 years. Twenty-seven patients developed recurrences, showing a mean age of 54 ± 19.7 years and a mean recurrence time of 51.2 ± 34 months., Conclusion: This is the first epidemiological study on OTs in Italian population according to 4th Edition of WHO Classification. Although limited in their retrospective nature, these findings could accurately estimate epidemiology of OTs in Italy.