Ruggiero A
Catholic University of Rome, Italy
Biography:
Dr Ruggiero received his medical degree from the Catholic University in Rome in 1992. He holds Board of Pediatrics in 1996 and Board of Pediatric Haematology and Oncology in 1998 at the Catholic University of Rome.
Dr. Ruggiero is currently an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Catholic University of Rome where he is responsible for teaching Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology.
At present he is chief of the Pediatric Oncology Unit of the Gemelli Hospital- Catholic University of Rome.
Carrying a regular patient load as consultant in pediatric hemato-oncology allows him to maintain his clinical skills and to promote improvements in safety and quality of healthcare. Examples of activities include producing guidelines for prevention of healthcare associated treatments and improvements in basic safe medical practices.
His research interests focus on pediatric clinical trials, clinical pharmacology of antineoplastic drugs, pain therapy and pediatric drugs.
Abstract:
Purpose: Low-grade gliomas are the most common paediatric brain tumours affecting 15 to 20% of the subjects with Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The NF1-related gliomas appear to have a different clinical behaviour compared to the sporadic cases.
Patients and methods: 60 patients (34 boys and 26 girls) with the median age of 4 years and low-grade glioma (42 sporadic cases and 18 cases with NF1) were treated. Thirty-nine patients (28 sporadic cases and 11 cases with NF1) underwent exclusive or post-surgical chemotherapy (with Vincristine and Carboplatin). The median follow-up was 5 years and 5 months.
Results: On brain MRI, tumour reduction was achieved in 12 of 28 patients (42.8%) among sporadic cases and in 9 of 11 patients (81.8%) among those with NF1, with a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p < 0.05). The response to therapy in both patient groups was not significantly influenced by gender, age, tumour site and histopathology, although the disease reduction occurred more frequently in children under 3 years of age.
Conclusions: Our study shows that paediatric patients with low-grade glioma and NF1 are more likely to respond to chemotherapy compared to non-NF1 patients.