ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2020 June;179(6):428-30

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.19.04150-0

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Neuroleptic therapy as an antitumor protective factor in schizophrenic patients with polysindromic framework

Walter FILIPPELLI ¹, Luigi PETRILLO ², Annamaria COTI ², Giovanni CASTALDO ³, Francesco LALLA ³, Alessio SULLO ⁴, Anna D’ALESSIO ⁵, Iolanda FIMIANI ⁶, Teresa DI COSTANZO ⁷, Federica SCHETTINO ⁸, Maria C. ISERNIA ⁹, Leopoldo FERRANTE ¹ ✉

¹ University of Naples, Naples, Italy; ² Villa Dei Pini Clinic, Avellino, Italy; ³ Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, Naples, Italy; ⁴ Private practitioner, Naples, Italy; ⁵ Private practitioner, Avellino, Italy; ⁶ UniPegaso, Naples, Italy; ⁷ Department of Oncology, Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, Naples, Italy; ⁸ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria; ⁹ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, Naples, Italy

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a serious psychotic disorder that appears during adolescence or youth. Even if it is considered a single disease, it probably includes a group of disorders with heterogeneous etiologies, and this encloses patients whose clinical characteristics, response to treatments and evolution of the disease result different. The signs and symptoms are variable and comprise alterations in perception, emotion, cognition, thought and behaviour. The expression of these manifestations is different for each patient and varies over time, but the effect of this condition is always severe and usually prolonged.
METHODS: The study was conducted on a population of subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IV. TR) recruited at the Neuropsychiatric nursing home Villa dei Pini in Avellino. 4962 records of patients with Schizophrenic Psychosis - admitted from 01-01-2006 to 31-12-2016 - have been taken into consideration, belonging to 888 patients (660 M and 228F) who had a history of being heavy smokers (about 90%) with concomitant depressive symptomatology (about 70%), hypertension (65%) and hearing loss (55%); the patients have been re-evaluated over time: at each re-entry into the clinic a complete blood count was performed with leukocyte formula, VES and PCR, and a Thoracic X-ray (the average number of patients returned to the clinic and 6 for patients 4 for female patients); some others were contacted by telephone interview.
RESULTS: All the patients taken into consideration had at least one neuroleptic drug in therapy during the hospital stay. Among these patients, re-evaluated over time at each re-entry into the clinic or reached by telephone interview, about 2% (16 patients) developed lung K; the incidence is greater in patients with more than one comorbidity (diabetes, hypertension with familiarity due to oncological pathology).
CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between schizophrenia and cancer has long been the subject of controversy among psychiatrists, which has been supported by the lack of conclusive empirical evidence on the occurrence of tumors in schizophrenic patients compared to the general population: schizophrenics therefore represent a subpopulation that offers the opportunity to study the recurrence of cancer in the presence of a specific pharmacological treatment with neuroleptics.

KEY WORDS: Schizophrenia; Antipsychotic agents; Medical oncology