Background: Malignant tumors represent a significant pathology with a profound global impact on the medical system. The fight against cancer represents a significant challenge, with multidisciplinary teams identifying numerous areas requiring improvement to enhance the prognosis. Facilitating the patient’s journey from diagnosis to treatment represents one such area of concern. One area of research interest is the use of various biomarkers to accurately predict the outcome of these patients. A substantial body of research has been conducted over the years examining the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and malignant tumors. The existing literature suggests that combining imaging diagnostic modalities with biomarkers, such as CRP, may enhance diagnostic accuracy. Methods: A systematic review was conducted on the PubMed and Web of Science platforms with the objective of documenting the interrelationship between CRP value and tumor grading for malignant tumors. After the application of the exclusion and inclusion criteria, 17 studies were identified, published between 2002 and 2024, comprising a total of 9727 patients. Results: These studies indicate this interrelationship for soft tissue sarcomas and for renal, colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, brain, bronchopulmonary, ovarian, and mesenchymal tumors. Conclusions: Elevated CRP levels are correlated with higher grading, thereby underscoring the potential utility of this biomarker in clinical prognostication.

Background: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been the focus of extensive research in recent years as an inexpensive inflammatory biomarker with prognostic value in oncology, but its relationship with tumor grade across solid malignancies remains uncertain. Methods: This systematic review evaluated original clinical studies reporting the association between peripheral blood NLR and histological tumor grade in solid tumors. PubMed and Web of Science were searched using Boolean strategies, and eligible full-text studies were synthesized qualitatively because of heterogeneity in tumor type, grading system, NLR threshold, and statistical reporting. Results: The qualitative synthesis included 13 retrospective primary studies comprising 5394 patients. Eight studies reported statistically significant associations between higher NLR and higher tumor grade or poorer differentiation, most consistently in bladder cancer and in single studies of prostate cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, renal cell carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer with synchronous liver metastases. Four studies reported no statistically significant grade-related association, mainly in heterogeneous breast cancer and ovarian cancer cohorts, whereas a small colorectal adenocarcinoma cohort study showed a non-significant positive trend. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests a possible relationship between systemic inflammation and tumor grade in selected malignancies, but the evidence remains preliminary, tumor-specific, retrospective, and vulnerable to confounding. NLR should not be interpreted as a surrogate for histological grade.

Monitoring disease progression and adjusting treatment based on biomarkers is essential in oncology. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is an emerging biomarker used for early detection of recurrence and monitoring response to treatment, while the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a recognized inflammatory marker for oncological prognosis. The aim of this study was to report two clinical cases and to assess the efficiency of ctDNA and NLR in guiding cancer treatments. These cases indicated that ctDNA testing may be more accurate than NLR assessment for monitoring treatment response in patients with colon or gastric cancer. Consequently, ctDNA may serve as a pivotal instrument in the surveillance and customization of oncological treatments, transcending the constraints of conventional inflammatory markers.

Background/Objectives: To evaluate macular structural changes after uncomplicated phacoemulsification using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and to investigate whether cardiometabolic disease influences the early postoperative retinal response. Methods: This retrospective observational study included 111 eyes from 111 patients undergoing uncomplicated phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation. Macular OCT parameters were evaluated preoperatively and at postoperative days 1, 7, and 30. Patients were stratified according to the presence of cardiometabolic disease, and retinal changes were compared between groups. Results: Exploratory visit-specific comparisons produced nominal differences in average retinal thickness and macular volume at several assessments; however, none remained statistically significant after Holm adjustment across the 16 parameter-by-visit comparisons. The adjusted models provided no statistically significant evidence that postoperative changes from baseline differed according to cardiometabolic status. Model-derived interaction contrasts at days 1, 7, and 30 were small and their 95% confidence intervals included zero for all OCT outcomes. Accordingly, no statistically significant differences in postoperative change from baseline were detected between groups; equivalence was not assessed. Conclusions: Although nominal differences were observed in exploratory visit-specific comparisons, none remained statistically significant after multiplicity adjustment. Furthermore, the adjusted analyses did not detect statistically significant differences in postoperative change from baseline according to cardiometabolic status after adjustment for baseline retinal structure and relevant demographic and surgical confounders. No statistically significant evidence of different postoperative OCT trajectories was detected between groups; equivalence was not assessed.

Rectal oncological pathology represents an increased degree of difficulty in terms of surgical approach. Along with the development of minimally invasive surgery, technology has also increased the options for performing digestive anastomoses. A significant increase has been observed among mechanical anastomoses. The evolution of mechanical sutures through the use of the stapler has become a true symbol of technological advancement, as they have led to improvements and effective gains in quality and productivity in suture making. The aim of this paper is to highlight the advantages of the use of staplers in rectal surgery, with their help achieving a lower percentage of postoperative complications, a lower incidence of suppuration, fistula and evisceration, a much faster patient recovery, a lower mortality, an increase in the possibility of performing low anastomosis and a decrease in the performance of colostomies that are difficult to be accepted by patients, most of them requiring a shorter period of hospitalization after major oncological surgery.

From a molecular perspective, colorectal cancer is a heterogeneous disease in which microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotypes, mismatch repair (MMR) status, chromosomal instability, or mutations in BRAF, KRAS, NRAS, and TP53 can influence prognosis, hereditary cancer risk assessment, and therapeutic approaches. Conventional biomarker testing via immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction, and next-generation sequencing remains the diagnostic standard, but it can be limited by cost, turnaround time, tissue consumption, and uneven access. This narrative review synthesizes 30 peer-reviewed studies, identified across major scientific databases, that evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) platforms designed to detect molecular alterations from routine hematoxylin and eosin-stained colorectal cancer tissue slides. The strongest and most reproducible evidence exists for MSI phenotypes and MMR status, for which weakly supervised, attention-based, transformer-based, foundation-model, and clinically oriented multiple-instance learning systems achieve high discriminatory performance and particularly high negative predictive values at screening thresholds. BRAF mutation status is moderately predictable, although often through morphology associated with microsatellite instability or the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP). In contrast, despite promising single-center results, the predictability of KRAS, NRAS, PIK3CA, and other point mutations remains less consistently generalizable. Interpretability analyses indicate that these algorithms rely on features such as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, plasma cells, mucinous and medullary differentiation, necrosis, stromal architecture, tumor heterogeneity, nuclear morphometry, and tumor purity. Current evidence supports the use of AI as a triage and enrichment tool rather than a replacement for validated molecular diagnostics. Ultimately, prospective validation, pre-analytical standardization, calibrated thresholds, regulatory oversight, and pathologist-centered workflow integration are essential for successful clinical translation.