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F Falcone

Publications and source records attributed to F Falcone.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Use of TPA in hepatology of infectious nature. Initial observations.

The tissue polypeptide antigen, TPA, is a tumour-associated antigen which is synthesized during the S phase of cellular division and released later by the tissues when rapid growth takes place. For this reason, the TPA is considered to be a specific phase tumour-associated antigen. Since Björklund detected the antigen in 1957 much less has been written about research into the presence of the TPA in high concentration in the blood of subjects with tumours in different sites. The TPA can, however, be measured in moderate quantities in healthy individuals and in those with hepatic pathology (hepatitis and cirrhosis) and pathology of a viral nature. In hepatic parenchymal pathology, repeated measurements of this marker show normalization with the benign course of the disease. The aim of this work is to evaluate if the use of the TPA can be useful in hepatology of an infectious nature as an index of cytoreproduction, a phenomenon which often affects the hepatocytic cytolysis which is found in acute viral hepatitis.

Alanine Transaminase↗
PubMed1985

Combination of tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) in different types of cancer.

Tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) were measured in 55 patients with cancer in different locations (21 lung cancer, 133 breast cancer, 9 stomach cancer, 5 colorectal cancer, 7 cancer of unknown origin). TPA gives elevated values in all types of cancer. The statistical analysis shows that TPA is about equally sensitive for all cancer types, while CEA has a particularly high sensitivity for colorectal carcinoma. The TPA values in the group of cancer patients is significantly different from those in a group of healthy controls. TPA gives higher sensitivity than CEA in all tumour locations. By the use of combined determination of TPA and CEA the sensitivity can be further increased, to 64% for the whole patient population and 89% for the gastric tumour patients, even when the cut-off values are chosen so high that no false positives are obtained in either reference group (150 Ul-1 for TPA, 10 ng ml-1 for CEA). A limited correlation exists between the markers in tumour patients.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Tumor markers and lung cancer: guidelines in a cost-limited medical organization.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the cost of the tumor marker assays most widely used in pneumological practice and the effectiveness of the percentage of DRG-based reimbursements absorbed by these assays. For this purpose we assessed the cost of lung tumor marker assays in Emilia Romagna compared to the DRG-based reimbursement of inpatients affected by lung diseases in whom the use of tumor markers is indicated. As an example, we evaluated the cost/effectiveness of the CEA assay in the differential diagnosis of 68 pleural effusions from 46 patients (20 benign diseases, 26 malignant). Because the CEA assay was not a substitute for cytology when this was not diagnostic, 41.3% of the resources were not efficiently spent. If the marker assay had been performed only in cases with negative cytology, we could have spared 14 of 46 tests. Moreover, since the expense lies predominantly in the cost of reagents (81.23%), we suggest as a routine procedure to collect and store samples for tumor marker assay in all cases; the test should be performed in a selected population of patients with negative cytology and "suspect" clinical outcome.

Antigens, Neoplasm↗