Alessandro Medda

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | DFCI · Department of Medical Oncology

In locally advanced (LA) laryngeal/hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LHSCC), larynx preservation (LP) strategies aim at the cure of the disease while preserving a functional larynx, thus avoiding total laryngectomy and the associated impact on the quality of life. In the last decades, apart from transoral and open-neck organ preservation appr...

Autophagy is important for the removal, degradation and recycling of damaged organelles, proteins, and lipids through the degradative action of lysosomes. In addition to its catabolic function, autophagy is important in cancer and viral-mediated tumorigenesis, including Human Papillomavirus (HPV) positive cancers. HPV infection is a major risk fact...

Autophagy is important for removal, degradation and recycling of damaged organelles, proteins, and lipids through the degradative action of lysosomes. In addition to its catabolic function, autophagy is important in cancer and viral-mediated tumorigenesis, including Human Papillomavirus (HPV) positive cancers. HPV infection is a major risk factor i...

Background Head and Neck cancer (HNC) is a fatal malignancy with poor prognosis. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is becoming the prominent cause of HNC in the western world, and studying the molecular mechanisms underlying its action in cancers is key towards targeted therapy. To replicate, HPV regulates the host DNA damage repair (DDR) pathwa...

Background Innovative therapies to target tumor-associated neutrophils (PMN) are of clinical interest, since these cells are centrally involved in cancer inflammation and tumor progression. Resolvin D1 (RvD1) is a lipid autacoid that promotes resolution of inflammation by regulating the activity of distinct immune and non-immune cells. Here, using...

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the causative agent of different kinds of tumors, including cervical cancers, non-melanoma skin cancers, anogenital cancers, and head and neck cancers. Despite the vaccination campaigns implemented over the last decades, we are far from eradicating HPV-driven malignancies. Moreover, the lack of targeted therapies t...

P63, and in particular the most expressed ΔNp63α isoform, seems to have a critical role in the outcome of head and neck cancer. Many studies have been conducted to assess the possible use of p63 as a prognostic marker in squamous cell carcinoma cancers, but the results are still not well-defined. Moreover, a clear relationship between the expressio...

Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)ylation is a crucial post-translational modification that controls functions of a wide collection of proteins and biological processes. Hence, given its pleiotropic role, viruses have developed many approaches to usurp SUMO conjugation to exploit the cellular host environment for their own benefit. Consistently,...

Human papilloma viruses (HPVs) are a group of double-stranded DNA viruses known to be the primary cause of cervical cancer. In addition, evidence has now established their role in non-melanoma skin cancers, head and neck cancer (HNC), and the development of other anogenital malignancies. The prevalence of HPV-related HNC, in particular oropharyngea...