Survival of European patients diagnosed with myeloid malignancies: a HAEMACARE study.

Population-based information on the survival of patients with myeloid malignancies is rare mainly because some entities were not recognized as malignant until the publication of the third revision of the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology and World Health Organization classification in 2000. In this study we report the survival of patients with myeloid malignancies, classified by updated criteria, in Europe. We analyzed 58,800 cases incident between 1995 to 2002 in 48 population-based cancer registries from 20 European countries, classified into HAEMACARE myeloid malignancy groupings.

Occupational exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the risk of uveal melanoma.

Objectives: We investigated the association between occupational exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) and the risk of uveal melanoma using international data of a case-control study from nine European countries.

Methods: After exclusion of proxy interviews, 280 cases and 3084 control subjects were included in the final analysis. Information on possible exposure to EDC was derived from 27 job-specific questionnaires (JSQ), which solicited detailed questions on occupational tasks.

Pesticide exposure in farming and forestry and the risk of uveal melanoma.

Purpose: Since pesticides are disputed risk factors for uveal melanoma, we studied the association between occupational pesticide exposure and uveal melanoma risk in a case-control study from nine European countries.

Methods: Incident cases of uveal melanoma and population as well as hospital controls were included and frequency-matched by country, 5-year age groups and sex. Self-reported exposure was quantified with respect to duration of exposure and pesticide application method.

Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and sex-differential risk of uveal melanoma.

Objectives: The association between occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and the risk of uveal melanoma was investigated in a case-control study in nine European countries.

Methods: Incident cases of uveal melanoma and population as well as hospital controls were included and frequency matched by country, 5-year birth cohort and sex. Subjects were asked whether they had worked close to high-voltage electrical transmission installations, computer screens and various electrical machines, or in complex electrical environments.

Incidence of hematologic malignancies in Europe by morphologic subtype: results of the HAEMACARE project.

Changing definitions and classifications of hematologic malignancies (HMs) complicate incidence comparisons. HAEMACARE classified HMs into groupings consistent with the latest World Health Organization classification and useful for epidemiologic and public health purposes. We present crude, age-specific and age-standardized incidence rates for European HMs according to these groupings, estimated from 66,371 lymphoid malignancies (LMs) and 21,796 myeloid malignancies (MMs) registered in 2000-2002 by 44 European cancer registries, grouped into 5 regions.

Hormonal exposures and the risk of uveal melanoma.

Objectives: Several studies suggest that hormonal mechanisms may be associated with the development of uveal melanoma. Therefore, the association between the risk of uveal melanoma and exposure to hormonal exposures was investigated in a case-control study from nine European countries.

Methods: Incident cases of uveal melanoma were frequency-matched to population and hospital controls by country, age, and sex.

Access to specialized pediatric cancer care in Switzerland.

Background: Specialized pediatric cancer centers (PCCs) are thought to be essential to obtain state-of-the-art care for children and adolescents. We determined the proportion of childhood cancer patients not treated in a PCC, and described their characteristics and place of treatment.

Procedure: The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR) registers all children treated in Swiss PCCs.

Lymph node ratio as an alternative to pN staging in node-positive breast cancer.

Purpose: In the current pTNM classification system, nodal status of breast cancer is based on the number of involved lymph nodes and does not account for the total number of lymph nodes removed. In this study, we assessed the prognostic value of the lymph node ratio (LNR; ie, ratio of positive over excised lymph nodes) as compared with pN staging and determined its optimal cutoff points.

Patients And Methods: From the Geneva Cancer Registry, we identified all women diagnosed with node-positive breast cancer between 1980 and 2004 (n = 1,829).

Survival in patients with uveal melanoma in Europe.

Objective: To estimate survival in patients in whom uveal melanoma was diagnosed between January 1, 1983, and December 31, 1994, in Europe.

Methods: Survival analysis of data from 32 cancer registries in 16 European countries adhering to the European Cancer Registry for 5788 patients with uveal melanoma diagnosed between January 1, 1983, and December 31, 1994, with follow-up to 1999.

Results: Five-year relative survival was 68.

Cancer survival in five continents: a worldwide population-based study (CONCORD).

Background: Cancer survival varies widely between countries. The CONCORD study provides survival estimates for 1.9 million adults (aged 15-99 years) diagnosed with a first, primary, invasive cancer of the breast (women), colon, rectum, or prostate during 1990-94 and followed up to 1999, by use of individual tumour records from 101 population-based cancer registries in 31 countries on five continents.

Incidence of uveal melanoma in Europe.

Purpose: To estimate incidence rates of uveal melanoma in Europe from 1983 to 1994.

Design: Incidence analysis of data from cancer registries adhering to the European Cancer Registry-based study on survival and care of cancer patients (EUROCARE) (cases diagnosed from 1983 to 1994).

Participants: Data of 6673 patients with ocular melanoma (as defined by International Classification of Diseases for Oncology morphology codes 8720 to 8780 [melanoma] and International Classification of Diseases 9 (ICD9) codes 190.

Ten-year survival and risk of relapse for testicular cancer: a EUROCARE high resolution study.

Effective treatments for testicular cancer have been available since the 1970s, yet EUROCARE uncovered marked inter-country survival differences for this disease. To investigate these differences, we reviewed clinical records of 1350 testicular cancer cases diagnosed during 1987-1992 from 13 population-based cancer registries in nine European countries. Patients were followed up for life status and relapse.

A modification to the flow method to estimate completeness in cancer registries with delayed registration.

Objective: For registries that routinely delay case registration, the flow method does not accurately describe their completeness over time. A modification to allow for such a delay is proposed and tested.

Methods: Using original data set from Ticino Cancer Registry, Switzerland, a new data set (the delayed data set) was created by adding two years to the date of registration for each case in the original data set, to emulate the situation in a registry where registration is delayed by two years.

Unexpected additional increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among a recent birth cohort in Switzerland.

Data collected by the Swiss Cancer Registries Network (ASRT/VSKR) have been used to analyse trends in thyroid cancer during the last available 20 years, to make within-country geographical comparisons for current incidence rates. Age-standardized (European population) incidence rates per 100,000 for all morphologies combined ranges from 1.62 to 2.

Survival from rare cancer in adults: a population-based study.

Background: Rare cancers are a challenge to clinical practice, and treatment experience, even in major cancer centres to which rare cancers are usually referred, is often limited. We aimed to study the epidemiology of rare cancers in a large population of several countries.

Methods: We analysed survival by age, sex, subsite, and morphology in 57,144 adults with 14 selected rare cancers diagnosed 1983-94.

Occupational risks for uveal melanoma results from a case-control study in nine European countries.

Objective: Uveal melanoma is a rare disease with poor prognosis and largely unknown etiology. We studied potential occupational risk factors.

Methods: A population based case-control study was undertaken during 1995-1997 in nine European countries using population and colon cancer controls with personal interviews.