Despite availability of primary and secondary prevention measures, cervical cancer (CC) persists as one of the most common cancers among women around the world, and more than 70% of cases are diagnosed at advanced stages. Although significant progress has been made in the treatment of CC, around 15-61% of patients develop a recurrence in lymph nodes or distant sites within the first 2 years of completing treatment and the prognosis for these patients remains poor. During the last decades, in an attempt to improve the outcome in these patients, novel agents as combination therapy that target known dysfunctional molecular pathways have been developed with the most attention to the inhibitors of the angiogenesis process. One therapeutic target is the vascular endothelial growth factor, which has been shown to play a key role in tumor angiogenesis, not only for growth of new tissue but also in tumor proliferation. Bevacizumab is recognized as a potent antiangiogenic agent in ovarian cancer but has also demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity in recurrent CC. Moreover, other antiangiogenic agents were recently under study including: sunitinib, sorafenib, pazopanib, cediranib and nintedanib with interesting preliminary results. Moreover, over the last few years there has been increasing interest in cellular immunotherapy as a strategy to harness the immune system to fight tumors. This article focuses on recent discoveries about antiangiogenic agents and immunotherapies in the treatment of CC highlighting on future's view.

The study demonstrates that in grass-sensitized farmers with asthmatic symptoms persisting for several weeks after grass pollination has ceased, the degree of airways hyperreactivity and the duration of postseasonal symptoms are directly related to the spring increase of ECP levels, as well as to the level of total IgE in serum. This allows us to identify two candidate biomarkers for the risk of developing prolonged asthma symptoms, and for the effective monitoring of anti-inflammatory treatment and allergen-specific immunotherapy.

Background We utilized transcystic clearance and intra-operative papillotomy through a rendezvous technique for the treatment of cholecysto-choledocolithiasis. The goal of this study was to evaluate the reliability of pre-operative parameters to address the most suitable surgical procedure. Methods A total of 180 patients affected by calculi of the gallbladder and bile duct underwent the single-stage treatment. According to several pre-operative parameters, 141 patients had to supposedly undergo transcystic clearance of the bile duct, while 39 patients had to be treated with the rendezvous technique. All patients were treated with the sequential procedure: first, we tried the transcystic procedure and, if there was a failure, we used a rendezvous technique. We prospectively analysed each group based on a series of variables such as sex, age, operative time, success rate of proposed treatment, conversion rate, post-operative complications and hospital stay. Results Transcystic clearance was successful in 134 out of 141 patients (95.0%), while 2 patients needed to undergo a laparo-endoscopy procedure (failure). Thirty-five out of 39 patients (89.7%) obtained common bile-duct (CBD) clearance through the rendezvous technique, while 1 patient obtained clean-up through the simple transcystic procedure (failure). Five out of 141 patients with transcystic clearance and 3 out of 39 patients with the rendezvous technique underwent laparotomy CBD clearance with conversion rates of 3.5% and 7.7%, respectively. Post-operative complications showed similar percentages for both procedures. However, the surgical time turned out to be longer for the rendezvous technique. Conclusions The one-stage procedure for the treatment of cholecysto-choledocolithiasis was possible in 94% of the cases utilizing a surgical technique selected according to the patient’s case history. The pre-operative parameters, such as jaundice, CBD diameters and stone diameters, have certified their reliability as good predictors of the most suitable procedure to follow.

The definition of probiotics is always evolving, since it includes natural live micro-organisms, cellular subfractions, as well as genetically engineered derivatives or proteins. The scope of probiotic administration is beneficial change of the intestinal microflora, and improvement of non immune or immune resistance in the intestinal tract. Very few controlled human studies have been reported, but many in vitro and experimental animal studies point to their safety and potentially useful applications. We shall review the published reports and discuss mainly the prospective uses in the field of allergic diseases, with reference to the implication of the natural (innate) immune system as regulator of the development of abnormal responses to ingested food antigens.

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