Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. It has been estimated that more than one-third of patients are diagnosed when CRC has already spread to the lymph nodes. One out of five patients is diagnosed with metastatic CRC. The stage of diagnosis influences treatment outcome and survival. Notwithstanding the recent advances in multidisciplinary management and treatment of CRC, patients are still reluctant to undergo screening tests because of the associated invasiveness and discomfort (e.g., colonoscopy with biopsies). Moreover, the serological markers currently used for diagnosis are not reliable and, even if they were useful to detect disease recurrence after treatment, they are not always detected in patients with CRC (e.g., CEA). Recently, translational research in CRC has produced a wide spectrum of potential biomarkers that could be useful for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of these patients. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the newer noninvasive or minimally invasive biomarkers of CRC. Here, we discuss imaging and biomolecular diagnostics ranging from their potential usefulness to obtain early and less-invasive diagnosis to their potential implementation in the development of a bespoke treatment of CRC.

Osteoid osteoma is a benign bone neoplasm with a reported incidence of 2-3% among all bone primary tumors. Although it is a small and benign lesion, it is often cause of patient complaint and discomfort. It is generally characterized by a long lasting, unremitting pain that typically exacerbates at night, often leading to sleep deprivation and functional limitation of the skeletal segment involved, with a significant reduction of patient daily life activities and consequent worsening of the overall quality of life. Over decades, complete surgical resection has represented the only curative treatment for symptomatic patients. In the last years, new percutaneous ablation techniques, especially radiofrequency ablation, have been reported to be a safe and effective alternative to classical surgery, with a low complication and recurrence rate, and a significant reduction in hospitalization cost and duration. The aim of this article is to provide an overview about the radiofrequency thermal ablation procedure in the treatment of osteoid osteoma.

Despite some limitations, the upright MRI can be a complementary investigation to the traditional methods when there are negative results in conventional MRI in symptomatic patients or when surgical therapy is scheduled.

Computed tomography angiography (CTA) has been widely used in the diagnostic evaluation of many aortic diseases, but no standardized techniques actually exist for aortic CTA. The aim of this study was to describe the usefulness of triphasic CTA in aortic assessment in both non-traumatic emergency and surveillance conditions. We performed non ECG-gated CTA examinations with a 64-slice CT scanner using a triphasic protocol consisting of an unenhanced acquisition, and two (early and delayed) contrastographic phases with a delay of 25-30 s and 100-120 s respectively after the injection of contrast medium. Were retrospectively selected adult patients with imaging findings of acute aortic dissection (AAD) or endoleak (EL) from November 2012 to November 2014. AAD was detected in 36 (67%) patients: 23 type A-AADs, and 13 type B-AADs. The presence of EL was observed in 18 (33%) patients: 1 type Ia, 5 types IIa, 2 types IIb, 1 type IIIa and 9 types IIIb. Triphasic CTA is useful to provide correct and prompt diagnosis of AAD in emergency, allowing the evaluation of type and atypical forms of AAD, and the identification of possible branch-vessel involvement and complications. During surveillance, triphasic CTA assures accurate and complete assessment of all known and unknown ELs and it is essential for first follow-up examination. Triphasic CTA represents a reliable imaging tool for aortic assessment in both non-traumatic emergency and surveillance after endovascular aneurysm repair. Modified protocol could be employed in selected patients and tailored in their known disease.

Acute chest pain is an important clinical challenge and a major reason for presentation to the emergency department. Although multiple imaging techniques are available to assess patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS), considerable interest has been focused on the use of non-invasive imaging options as coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). According to several recent evidences, CCTA has been shown to represent a useful tool to rapidly and accurately diagnose coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with low to intermediate cardiovascular risk. CCTA examination has the unique ability to non-invasively depict the coronary anatomy, not only allowing visualization of the lumen of the arteries in order to detect severe stenosis or occlusion responsible of myocardial ischemia, but also allows the assessment of coronary artery wall by demonstrating the presence or absence of CAD. However, routine CCTA is not able to differentiate ischemic from non-ischemic chest pain in patients with known CAD and it does not provide any functional assessment of the heart. Conversely, CMR is considered the gold standard in the evaluation of morphology, function, viability and tissue characterization of the heart. CMR offers a wide range of tools for diagnosing myocardial infarction (MI) at least at the same time of the elevation of cardiac troponin values, differentiating infarct tissue and ischemic myocardium from normal myocardium or mimicking conditions, and distinguishing between new and old ischemic events. In high-risk patients, with acute and chronic manifestations of CAD, CMR may be preferable to CCTA, since it would allow detection, differential diagnosis, prognostic evaluation and management of MI.