The importance of age as prognostic factor for the outcome of patients with hepatoblastoma: Analysis from the Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration (CHIC) database.

Purpose: Treatment outcomes for hepatoblastoma have improved markedly in the contemporary treatment era, principally due to therapy intensification, with overall survival increasing from 35% in the 1970s to 90% at present. Unfortunately, these advancements are accompanied by an increased incidence of toxicities. A detailed analysis of age as a prognostic factor may support individualized risk-based therapy stratification.

Risk-stratified staging in paediatric hepatoblastoma: a unified analysis from the Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration.

Background: Comparative assessment of treatment results in paediatric hepatoblastoma trials has been hampered by small patient numbers and the use of multiple disparate staging systems by the four major trial groups. To address this challenge, we formed a global coalition, the Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration (CHIC), with the aim of creating a common approach to staging and risk stratification in this rare cancer.

Methods: The CHIC steering committee-consisting of leadership from the four major cooperative trial groups (the International Childhood Liver Tumours Strategy Group, Children's Oncology Group, the German Society for Paediatric Oncology and Haematology, and the Japanese Study Group for Paediatric Liver Tumours)-created a shared international database that includes comprehensive data from 1605 children treated in eight multicentre hepatoblastoma trials over 25 years.

The Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration (CHIC): Novel global rare tumor database yields new prognostic factors in hepatoblastoma and becomes a research model.

Introduction: Contemporary state-of-the-art management of cancer is increasingly defined by individualized treatment strategies. For very rare tumors, like hepatoblastoma, the development of biologic markers, and the identification of reliable prognostic risk factors for tailoring treatment, remains very challenging. The Children's Hepatic tumors International Collaboration (CHIC) is a novel international response to this challenge.

Prevalence and incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in Italy.

Aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence and incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from an administrative cohort consisting of 2,268,514 males and 2,446,769 females, aged ≥ 18 years, from 32 Italian Health Districts. The diagnosis of RA was certified by a qualified specialist and confirmed by ≥3 prescriptions of "specific drugs" (corticosteroids, DMARDs or "biological" agents) during 2011. Patients on "specific drugs" qualified as "active RA"; those who never had more than 4 prescriptions in the past were classified as "unlikely RA," and those previously on chronic treatment but who discontinued therapy for >1 year were classified as "remission RA.

Use of psychotropic medications in Italian children and adolescents.

Introduction: The evidence of psychotropic drug safety and efficacy in the pediatric population is scant and widely debated. Yet, the prescription prevalence and incidence are increasing. A drug utilization study, based on a multiregional prescription database was therefore carried out in a sample of 1,484,770 Italian children and adolescents younger than 18 years during the year 2004.