Biomedical and health research: an analysis of country participation and research fields in the EU's Horizon 2020.

We analysed the Horizon 2020 project database, currently the European Union's (EU) largest framework programme for research and innovation-nearly 80 billion euros available over 7 years (2014-2020), to estimate the amount and type of EU-supported biomedical and health research and funding distribution among EU member states and non-European countries. Out of 20,877 projects as of 14th January 2019, a total of 4865 projects were classified as human health related. Ninety-four countries/territories worldwide participated in at least one biomedical project.

Childhood infectious diseases and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma according to the WHO classification: A reanalysis of the Italian multicenter case-control study.

Since 1960, incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) has been increasing in most industrialized countries, but causes of this trend remain unclear. A role of the decreased exposure to infectious agents during childhood has been proposed. Our study evaluates the association between common childhood infectious diseases and the risk of NHL and its major subtypes by a reanalysis of the Italian multicenter case-control study.

Occupation and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Its Subtypes: A Pooled Analysis from the InterLymph Consortium.

Background: Various occupations have been associated with an elevated risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), but results have been inconsistent across studies.

Objectives: We investigated occupational risk of NHL and of four common NHL subtypes with particular focus on occupations of a priori interest.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of 10,046 cases and 12,025 controls from 10 NHL studies participating in the InterLymph Consortium.

Population health and status of epidemiology in Western European, Balkan and Baltic countries.

Background: This article is part of a series commissioned by the International Epidemiological Association, aimed at describing population health and epidemiological resources in the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. It covers 32 of the 53 WHO European countries, namely the Western European countries, the Balkan countries and the Baltic countries.

Methods: The burdens of mortality and morbidity and the patterns of risk factors and inequalities have been reviewed in order to identify health priorities and challenges.

IARC monographs: 40 years of evaluating carcinogenic hazards to humans.

Background: Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Programme for the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans has been criticized for several of its evaluations, and also for the approach used to perform these evaluations. Some critics have claimed that failures of IARC Working Groups to recognize study weaknesses and biases of Working Group members have led to inappropriate classification of a number of agents as carcinogenic to humans.

Objectives: The authors of this Commentary are scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens.

A pooled analysis of cigarette smoking and risk of multiple myeloma from the international multiple myeloma consortium.

Background: Past investigations of cigarette smoking and multiple myeloma have been underpowered to detect moderate associations, particularly within subgroups. To clarify this association, we conducted a pooled analysis of nine case-control studies in the International Multiple Myeloma Consortium, with individual-level questionnaire data on cigarette smoking history and other covariates.

Methods: Using a pooled population of 2,670 cases and 11,913 controls, we computed odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) relating smoking to multiple myeloma risk using unconditional logistic regression adjusting for gender, age group, race, education, body mass index, alcohol consumption, and study center.

Etiologic heterogeneity among non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes: the InterLymph Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes Project.

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) comprises biologically and clinically heterogeneous subtypes. Previously, study size has limited the ability to compare and contrast the risk factor profiles among these heterogeneous subtypes.

Methods: We pooled individual-level data from 17 471 NHL cases and 23 096 controls in 20 case-control studies from the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph).

Medical history, lifestyle, family history, and occupational risk factors for chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma: the InterLymph Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes Project.

Background: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) are two subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A number of studies have evaluated associations between risk factors and CLL/SLL risk. However, these associations remain inconsistent or lacked confirmation.

Rationale and Design of the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph) Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes Project.

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), the most common hematologic malignancy, consists of numerous subtypes. The etiology of NHL is incompletely understood, and increasing evidence suggests that risk factors may vary by NHL subtype. However, small numbers of cases have made investigation of subtype-specific risks challenging.

A pooled analysis of alcohol consumption and risk of multiple myeloma in the international multiple myeloma consortium.

Background: Recent findings suggest that alcohol consumption may reduce risk of multiple myeloma.

Methods: To better understand this relationship, we conducted an analysis of six case-control studies participating in the International Multiple Myeloma Consortium (1,567 cases, 7,296 controls). Summary ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) relating different measures of alcohol consumption and multiple myeloma risk were computed by unconditional logistic regression with adjustment for age, race, and study center.

Childhood infectious diseases and risk of leukaemia in an adult population.

Our study is aimed at investigating the association between common childhood infectious diseases (measles, chickenpox, rubella, mumps and pertussis) and the risk of developing leukaemia in an adult population. A reanalysis of a large population-based case-control study was carried out. Original data included 1,771 controls and 649 leukaemia cases from 11 Italian areas.

Multiple myeloma and occupation: a pooled analysis by the International Multiple Myeloma Consortium.

Objective: We investigated occupational risk of multiple myeloma (MM) in a pooled analysis of five international case-control studies.

Methods: We calculated the odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval for selected occupations with unconditional regression analysis in 1959 MM cases and 6192 controls, by pooling study-specific risks using random-effects meta-analysis. Exposure to organic solvents was assessed with a job-exposure matrix (JEM).

Self-reported history of infections and the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: an InterLymph pooled analysis.

We performed a pooled analysis of data on self-reported history of infections in relation to the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from 17 case-control studies that included 12,585 cases and 15,416 controls aged 16-96 years at recruitment. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated in two-stage random-effect or joint fixed-effect models, adjusting for age, sex and study centre. Data from the 2 years before diagnosis (or date of interview for controls) were excluded.

Is cancer overtaking cardiovascular diseases as the killer number one in men in Tuscany?

Aims And Background: For the first time in 2006, cancer became the main cause of death in men in Italy, exceeding cardiovascular disease. The aim of the study was to verify whether the overtaking of cancer male mortality occurred also in Tuscany or in some of its 12 subregional areas and whether there was a geographical trend.

Methods: Age-standardized mortality rates from the Tuscan Regional Mortality Registry, 1987-2008, were calculated for neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases, considering the whole region and its 12 areas.

Lung cancer risk and residence in the neighborhood of a sewage plant in Italy. A case-control study.

Aims And Background: Environmental pollution originating in sewage and industrial plants can be associated with lung cancer risk, as ecological and case-control studies have indicated. In the present study, the association between lung cancer occurrence and residence near a sewage plant in Prato (Italy) was investigated. A previous geographic study in the same area had shown an increasing trend of lung cancer mortality and incidence with propinquity to the plant.

Lung cancer mortality trend by birth cohort in men, Tuscany, 1971-2006.

Aims And Background: In Tuscany, lung cancer mortality in men has shown a decreasing geographical trend over the last 3 decades from the most industrialized north-western coastal areas (Massa-Carrara, Viareggio) to the south-eastern areas (Arezzo, Siena), following the path of the development of industrial activities. The aim of the study was to evaluate lung cancer mortality in males by birth cohort in order to verify whether there was also a decreasing birth cohort trend in male lung cancer mortality rates between north-western and south-eastern Tuscan areas.

Methods: Lung cancer deaths that occurred in men resident in Tuscany, 1971-2006, were analyzed by birth cohort, age group and local health authority area.

Birth order and risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma--true association or bias?

There is inconsistent evidence that increasing birth order may be associated with risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The authors examined the association between birth order and related variables and NHL risk in a pooled analysis (1983-2005) of 13,535 cases and 16,427 controls from 18 case-control studies within the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). Overall, the authors found no significant association between increasing birth order and risk of NHL (P-trend = 0.

Association between genetic polymorphisms in the XRCC1, XRCC3, XPD, GSTM1, GSTT1, MSH2, MLH1, MSH3, and MGMT genes and radiosensitivity in breast cancer patients.

Purpose: Clinical radiosensitivity varies considerably among patients, and radiation-induced side effects developing in normal tissue can be therapy limiting. Some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been shown to correlate with hypersensitivity to radiotherapy. We conducted a prospective study of 87 female patients with breast cancer who received radiotherapy after breast surgery.

InterLymph hierarchical classification of lymphoid neoplasms for epidemiologic research based on the WHO classification (2008): update and future directions.

After publication of the updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumors of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues in 2008, the Pathology Working Group of the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph) now presents an update of the hierarchical classification of lymphoid neoplasms for epidemiologic research based on the 2001 WHO classification, which we published in 2007. The updated hierarchical classification incorporates all of the major and provisional entities in the 2008 WHO classification, including newly defined entities based on age, site, certain infections, and molecular characteristics, as well as borderline categories, early and "in situ" lesions, disorders with limited capacity for clinical progression, lesions without current International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 3rd Edition codes, and immunodeficiency-associated lymphoproliferative disorders. WHO subtypes are defined in hierarchical groupings, with newly defined groups for small B-cell lymphomas with plasmacytic differentiation and for primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas.

Epidemiology, public health, and the rhetoric of false positives.

Background: As an observational science, epidemiology is regarded by some researchers as inherently flawed and open to false results. In a recent paper, Boffetta et al. [Boffetta P, McLaughlin JK, LaVecchia C, Tarone RE, Lipworth L, Blot WJ.

International collaborations in cancer control and the Third International Cancer Control Congress.

Over the past few decades, there has been growing support for the idea that cancer needs an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, the international cancer community has developed several strategies as outlined in the WHO non-communicable diseases Action Plan (which includes cancer control) as the World Health Assembly and the UICC World Cancer Declaration, which both include primary prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care. This paper highlights experiences/ideas in cancer control for international collaborations between low, middle, and high income countries, including collaborations between the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) Member States, the Latin-American and Caribbean countries, and the Eastern Mediterranean countries.

Occupational exposure to high molecular weight allergens and lymphoma risk among Italian adults.

Objectives: Exposure to high molecular weight (HMW) allergens that provoke immune reactivity through an IgE-mediated pathway has been associated with a decreased risk of B-cell lymphoma. The present analysis was conducted to assess the associations between occupational exposure to specific HMW allergens and the risk of B-cell, T-cell, and Hodgkin's lymphomas.

Methods: We analyzed data from 2,290 incident lymphoma cases and 1,771 population-based controls enrolled in a multicenter study of hematolymphopoietic malignancies conducted in Italy between 1991 and 1993.

Atopic disease and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: an InterLymph pooled analysis.

We performed a pooled analysis of data on atopic disease and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from 13 case-control studies, including 13,535 NHL cases and 16,388 controls. Self-reported atopic diseases diagnosed 2 years or more before NHL diagnosis (cases) or interview (controls) were analyzed. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed in two-stage random-effects or joint fixed-effects models, and adjusted for age, sex, and study center.

Exposure to benzene and risk of breast cancer among shoe factory workers in Italy.

Aims And Background: Evidence of the association between leukemia and benzene exposure has been provided by several epidemiological studies. An increased risk of breast cancer among women exposed to benzene has also been suggested. The aim of this study was to analyze breast cancer risk in a cohort of 1,002 women exposed to benzene in a shoe factory in Florence, Italy, where an excess of leukemia in men was reported.