Recent trends in breast cancer incidence among 6 Asian groups in the Greater Bay Area of Northern California.

Asians and Pacific Islanders are typically aggregated in United States (US) cancer statistics even though the few studies that have considered subgroups separately have found marked differences in cancer incidence. The objective of this study was to evaluate trends in breast cancer incidence rates separately for US Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, South Asian and Vietnamese women overall and by age at diagnosis, histologic subtype and stage at diagnosis. Age-adjusted incidence rates and annual percent changes (APC) of new, primary breast cancer diagnosed in the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry of Northern California (1990-2002) were calculated using SEER*Stat.

Validity of cancer registry medicaid status against enrollment files: implications for population-based studies of cancer outcomes.

Background: Poor access to or inadequate health insurance contributes to disparities in cancer incidence and mortality. Cancer registry "payer source" data is collected by many cancer registries in the United States and has been used to compare cancer outcomes across insurance types.

Objectives: We evaluated the validity of cancer registry data on patient Medicaid status against enrollment data from Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program.

Test performance of positron emission tomography and computed tomography for mediastinal staging in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) with 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for mediastinal staging in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer and to determine whether test results are conditionally dependent (the sensitivity and specificity of FDG-PET depend on the presence or absence of enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes on CT).

Data Sources: Computerized search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and CancerLit through March 2003 and reference lists of retrieved studies and review articles.

Study Selection: Studies in any language that examined FDG-PET for mediastinal staging in patients with known or suspected non-small-cell lung cancer, enrolled at least 10 participants (including at least 5 participants with mediastinal metastasis), and provided enough data to permit calculation of sensitivity and specificity for identifying lymph node involvement.