Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) is a clinical syndrome manifested by progressive loss of renal function in a short period. At renal biopsy, it is characterized by crescent formation. RPGN may be associated with the presence of circulating antibodies. We report a case of type IV RPGN [ANCA and Anti–glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) antibody disease], a severe disease causing a difficult to treat picture. Our case was complicated by severe thrombocytopenia due to the use of heparin and later on by thrombotic microangiopathy. These events occurred rapidly, making the clinical framing and management decisions very hard.

Background: The treatment of breast cancer (BC) remains a constant and rapidly evolving issue for multidisciplinary breast cancer teams. Considering the emerging understanding and advances in the biological course of this disease, new trends in radiotherapy fractionation, systemic therapies, and oncoplastic surgical techniques are revolutionizing adjuvant treatment approaches to BC. Novel challenges are questioning the integration of adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) into the real-world clinical setting. Methods: PubMed literature search was conducted in order to extract data supporting the role of new trends in breast cancer adjuvant approach according to rising issues in the multidisciplinary team discussion such as sequencing with chemotherapy (CT) plus whole breast hypofractionated radiotherapy (HF-WBRT); the role of ART after neoadjuvant CT (NACT) followed by breast conservative surgery (BCS) in early BC achieving pathological complete remission (pCR); and the integration of ART in immediate autologous breast oncoplastic reconstruction after mastectomy (a-IBR). Furthermore, there are still several concerns about toxicity with adjuvant trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) or breast re-irradiation after BCS relapse in long-term survivors refusing mastectomy. Results: Among 40 hits, only 12 studies answered to these issues. Many of them were retrospective studies. Less than 500 patients met the criteria for these issues and several conclusions were found exhaustive. Conclusion: Few issues seem to have literature solutions, while there are still open questions in regard to these new trends. Novel strategies through prospective or randomized studies and new consensus guidelines are required.

Up to now in breast cancer (BC) treatment, adjuvant chemotherapy (A-CT) precedes adjuvant radiotherapy (A-RT). It’s beyond question that A-RT improves local control while A-CT improves the Disease Free Survival (DFS) due to the reduction of metastatic distant recurrences. Taken togheter these two approaches impact favourably on the reduction of breast cancer mortality. In the last twenty years, the adjuvant treatment of BC has evolved quickly due to a better knowledge of its molecular biology , genetic prohile and its α/β ratio 3 / 4 Gy for the tumor and normal tissues radiosensitivity. Thus new schedules with hypofractionated radiotherapy have been tested and third generation of A-CT have been introduced leading to a better survival rate but a further delay in A-RT starting, raising the question to rethink the sequencing between these two approaches. However the sequencing timing between these two approaches still remains unchanged with A-CT before A-RT as the standard of care. Many attempts have been provided in order to optimize this sequencing. This comprehensive review is a journey among randomised, retrospective and prospective studies which highlights the past, the current and the novelties on timing sequencing proposals between these two modalities to assess the state of art. Sequential, concomitant and sandwitch modalities of chemotherapy with conventional or hypofractionated RT schedules from the most important studies will be analysed in this review.

Over the past two decades, interest in prone-position whole breast irradiation (WBI) as an effective and practical alternative to supine treatment has been growing a lot. Although solid scientific data has provided evidence of substantial dosimetric benefit with decreased toxicity, there is still conflict in the radiotherapy community over whether to adopt prone-position WBI as a valid alternative to supine radiotherapy (RT) in routine clinical practice. A large number of prone trials have been conducted to assess and address concerns related to prone treatment in large and pendulous breasts and in left and right breast cancer (BC), nodal irradiation, and its reproducibility with deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) delivery with photons or protons. Appropriate atlases have been defined to improve prone nodal irradiation. Additionally, more comfortable customized immobilization couches have been constructed to permit IMRT beams and VMAT arrangements with modern LINACs. Although our search in literature databases shows a growing body of evidence from the past two decades on this issue, prone WBI is still underused. Given the paradox of the advances and benefits of this positioning and the lack of drive in the radiotherapy community towards its clinical implementation, the purpose of this comprehensive review is to evaluate the true advantages of this position in real life and contextualize it in scenarios like large breasts, left-sided breast cancer, and nodal irradiation to encourage its implementation in clinical practice.

Background: In this study, we retrospectively analyzed clinical and toxicity outcomes of 67 prostate cancer (PCa) patients undergoing moderately hypofractionated radiotherapy (RT) after prostatectomy, with adjuvant or salvage intent. Methods: Irradiation was delivered by volumetric modulated arc therapy. The median follow-up was 48 months. The 3- and 5-year biochemical relapse-free survival rates were 80% and 69%. The RT schedule consisted of a median total dose of 67.5 Gy with a median number of 25 fractions and a median fraction dose of 2.7 Gy to the prostate bed (PB) and 60% of patients simultaneously received whole pelvis irradiation (WP; fraction dose: 1.8 Gy, median total dose of 46.8 Gy). Results: The rate of acute toxicity was 54% for gastrointestinal (GI) and 36% for genitourinary (GU). No grade 3 acute toxicity was observed. Late toxicity was as follows: G1, G2, and G3 GI events in 25.5%, 3.6%, and 1.8% of the cases, respectively; G1, G2, and G3 GU events in 37.1%, 11.1%, and 7.4%, respectively. The toxicity-free survival (TFS) curves showed a different trend for acute and late toxicity. TFS was significantly associated with RT volume, except for acute GI toxicity. Specifically, the concomitant irradiation of PB and WP appeared to be a significant risk factor for late GI and GU toxicity (p = 0.029 and p = 0.012, respectively). Conclusions: At the 48-month median timepoint considered by our study, postoperative hypofractionated RT achieved promising results in terms of clinical outcomes with acceptable toxicity. Only the irradiated volume seems to be an important predictor for toxicity.

Breast-conserving surgery followed by adjuvant whole-breast irradiation ( WBI) remains the standard of care for patients with early-stage breast cancer. In this setting, irradiation of the tumor bed with an additional boost dose has historically been used to reduce the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR). The major randomized trials established that boost irradiation improves local control, particularly in younger patients, but does not confer a consistent overall survival (OS) benefit and is associated with increased late toxicity, like fibrosis and poorer cosmetic outcomes as well. More recent evidence, including systematic reviews and contemporary consensus recommendations, suggests that boost irradiation may be safely omitted in selected low-risk patients, especially when the estimated absolute reduction in 10-year local recurrence is is less than 3%. At the same time, the routine use of boost irradiation has been challenged by modern systemic therapy treatments questioning if boost could be really omitted in this set. Further advances in radiation techniques are redefining the scheduling and timing of boost administration, shifting from a conventional fractionation to hypofractionation, and from the sequential (SEB) to the simultaneous delivery with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB). In light of increasingly minimally invasive surgery and de-escalation RT policy, unresolved clinical issues still remains about the management of positive or close margins and the role of boost irradiation in ductal carcinoma in situ. This narrative review summarizes the biological rationale, historical trial evidence, and recent literature addressing these evolving scenarios. Current evidence supports a more individualized approach to boost prescription based on recurrence risk, patient age, tumor biology, margin status, treatment techniques(surgery and radiotherapy), and patient preference.