The moderate decrease in invasive cervical cancer incidence rates in Spain (1980-2004): limited success of opportunistic screening?

Background: Despite its low incidence, invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is still a public health concern in Spain, due to its being perceived as an avoidable neoplasm. Social changes in recent decades may have increased the risk of ICC among Spanish females. This study sought to update incidence trends in Spanish registries.

Cancer mortality trends in Spain: 1980-2007.

Introduction: Since the 1990s, there has been a downturn in mortality for specific types of tumour in Spain and other European countries. This article reports on the current situation of cancer mortality in Spain, as well as mortality trends over the period 1980-2007, and provides an overview of cancer mortality trends in Europe in recent years.

Methods: Data were sourced from the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística - INE) and the World Health Organization mortality database.

Mortality due to tumours of the digestive system in towns lying in the vicinity of metal production and processing installations.

Background: Releases to the environment of pollutants from industrial metal production and processing installations can pose a health problem to humans, owing to the toxic substances that such emissions contain.

Objectives: To investigate whether there might be excess mortality due to tumours of the digestive system among the population residing near Spanish metal production and processing installations included in the European Pollutant Emission Register.

Methods: Ecological study designed to examine mortality due to malignant tumours of the digestive system (oral cavity and pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, and colon-rectum) at the municipal level, over the period 1994-2003.

Cytogenetic status in newborns and their parents in Madrid: the BioMadrid study.

Monitoring cytogenetic damage is frequently used to assess population exposure to environmental mutagens. The cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay is one of the most widely used methods employed in these studies. In the present study we used this assay to assess the baseline frequency of micronuclei in a healthy population of father-pregnant woman-newborn trios drawn from two Madrid areas.

Gastric cancer mortality trends in Spain, 1976-2005, differences by autonomous region and sex.

Background: Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of oncologic death worldwide. One of the most noteworthy characteristics of this tumor's epidemiology is the marked decline reported in its incidence and mortality in almost every part of the globe in recent decades. This study sought to describe gastric cancer mortality time trends in Spain's regions for both sexes.

Age-specific breast, uterine and ovarian cancer mortality trends in Spain: changes from 1980 to 2006.

Introduction: Cancers of the breast, uterus and ovary are responsible for 30% of the cancer deaths in Spanish women. In recent decades, Spain has experienced important socioeconomic transformations, which may have affected mortality trends. We present the current situation of mortality in Spain due to cancers of the breast, uterus and ovary, as well as trends over 1980-2006.

The striking geographical pattern of gastric cancer mortality in Spain: environmental hypotheses revisited.

Background: Gastric cancer is decreasing in most countries. While socioeconomic development is the main factor to which this decline has been attributed, enormous differences among countries and within regions are still observed, with the main contributing factors remaining elusive. This study describes the geographic distribution of gastric cancer mortality at a municipal level in Spain, from 1994-2003.

WT 1 expression in nevi and melanomas: a marker of melanocytic invasion into the dermis.

Background: WT1, first recognized as a tumor suppressor gene involved in the development of Wilms' tumor, may have apparently contradictory findings and functions. As WT1 has been identified as a molecular target for cancer immunotherapy, immunodetection of WT1 in tumor cells has become an essential step in cancer studies.

Methods: We compare the expression of this protein among different types of melanocytic nevi and among stages in primary melanoma progression.

[Temporal trends of cervical cancer mortality rates among regions in Spain: 1975-2004].

Background And Objectives: To estimate the temporal trend of the cervical cancer mortality rates among Autonomous Communities (AACC) in Spain.

Material And Methods: Individual death cases recorded as "cervical cancer', 'corpus uteri cancer' and 'uterus, site unspecified' -codes 180,182 and 179 in ICD8 and 9 and codes C53, C54 and C55 in ICD 10- were obtained, as well as women population estimates broken down by age and AACC from the Spanish National Institute for Statistics (INE). To correct distortions due to increasing improvement in death certification, deaths from 'uterus, site unspecified' were reallocated.

Role of educational level in the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and health-related quality of life (HRQL) among rural Spanish women.

Background: The impact of obesity on health-related quality of life (HRQL) has been little explored in rural areas. The goal of this study is to ascertain the association between obesity and HRQL among Spanish women living in a rural area, and the influence of their educational level.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with personal interview of 1298 women (aged 18 to 60) randomly selected from the electoral rolls of 14 towns in Galicia, a region in the north-west of Spain.

Mortality due to lung, laryngeal and bladder cancer in towns lying in the vicinity of combustion installations.

Background: Installations that burn fossil fuels to generate power may represent a health problem due to the toxic substances which they release into the environment.

Objectives: To investigate whether there might be excess mortality due to tumors of lung, larynx and bladder in the population residing near Spanish combustion installations included in the European Pollutant Emission Register.

Methods: Ecologic study designed to model sex-specific standardized mortality ratios for the above three tumors in Spanish towns, over the period 1994-2003.

Burden of disease due to cancer in Spain.

Background: Burden of disease is a joint measure of mortality and morbidity which makes it easier to compare health problems in which these two components enjoy different degrees of relative importance. The objective of this study is ascertaining the burden of disease due to cancer in Spain via the calculation of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

Methods: DALYs are the sum of years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lost due to disability.

Study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma mortality associated with industrial pollution in Spain, using Poisson models.

Background: Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) have been linked to proximity to industrial areas, but evidence regarding the health risk posed by residence near pollutant industries is very limited. The European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) is a public register that furnishes valuable information on industries that release pollutants to air and water, along with their geographical location.This study sought to explore the relationship between NHL mortality in small areas in Spain and environmental exposure to pollutant emissions from EPER-registered industries, using three Poisson-regression-based mathematical models.

Biomonitoring of exposure to environmental pollutants in newborns and their parents in Madrid, Spain (BioMadrid): study design and field work results.

In Spain environmental surveillance has mainly relied on measures of selected pollutants in air, water, food and soil. A study was conducted in Madrid to assess the feasibility of implementing a surveillance system of exposure among the general population to specific environmental pollutants, using bio-markers. The project was basically focused on the environment surrounding newborns.

Occupation, exposure to chemicals, sensitizing agents, and risk of multiple myeloma in Sweden.

Background: This study sought to identify occupations with high incidence of multiple myeloma and to investigate possible excess risk associated with occupational exposure to chemicals and sensitizing agents in Sweden.

Methods: A historical cohort of 2,992,166 workers was followed up (1971--1989) through record linkage with the National Cancer and Death Registries. For each job category, age and period standardized incidence ratios and age and period adjusted relative risks of multiple myeloma were calculated using Poisson models.

Kidney cancer mortality in Spain: geographic patterns and possible hypotheses.

Background: Since the second half of the 1990s, kidney cancer mortality has tended to stabilize and decline in many European countries, due to the decrease in the prevalence of smokers. Nevertheless, incidence of kidney cancer is rising across the sexes in some of these countries, a trend which may possibly reflect the fact that improvements in diagnostic techniques are being outweighed by the increased prevalence of some of this tumor's risk factors. This study sought to: examine the geographic pattern of kidney cancer mortality in Spain; suggest possible hypotheses that would help explain these patterns; and enhance existing knowledge about the large proportion of kidney tumors whose cause remains unknown.

Prenatal and early childhood exposure to mercury and methylmercury in Spain, a high-fish-consumer country.

Exposure to mercury, a risk factor for neurodevelopmental toxicity, was assessed in Spanish children (preschool children and newborns, n = 218) in a four-locations survey by performing mercury determination in hair. To assess the prenatal and children's exposure and its potential risk, total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) were analyzed and examined for associations with maternal sociodemographic characteristics and dietary intake through interviews and food frequency questionnaires. The mean THg in hair was 0.

Municipal distribution of ovarian cancer mortality in Spain.

Background: Spain was the country that registered the greatest increases in ovarian cancer mortality in Europe. This study describes the municipal distribution of ovarian cancer mortality in Spain using spatial models for small-area analysis.

Methods: Smoothed relative risks of ovarian cancer mortality were obtained, using the Besag, York and Molliè autoregressive spatial model.

Lung cancer mortality in towns near paper, pulp and board industries in Spain: a point source pollution study.

Background: This study sought to ascertain whether there might be excess lung cancer mortality among the population residing in the vicinity of Spanish paper and board industries which report their emissions to the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER).

Methods: This was an ecological study that modelled the Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) for lung cancer in 8073 Spanish towns over the period 1994-2003. Population exposure to industrial pollution was estimated on the basis of distance from town of residence to pollution source.

Occupational exposure to chemicals and risk of thyroid cancer in Sweden.

Purpose: To explore thyroid cancer (TC) risk in the Swedish population, associated with occupational exposure to certain chemicals.

Methods: National cancer and death registries were used to follow-up (1971-1989) all Swedish workers employed in the 1970 census. Each combination of occupation and industry was linked to a Swedish job-exposure matrix (JEM), with exposure to 13 chemicals classified as "possible exposure", "probable exposure" or "unexposed".

Do sex and site matter? Different age distribution in melanoma of the trunk among Swedish men and women.

Background: Recent research on cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) points to the coexistence of several biological pathways linked to the anatomical site of the lesion, which could lead to this neoplasm. Although the different anatomical distribution of CMM by sex is usually attributed to gender-specific patterns of sun exposure, it has been suggested that an alternative explanation might lie in gender-specific site susceptibility.

Objectives: This paper aimed at analysing the age distribution of CMM by site and sex to gain in-depth knowledge of differences between the sexes.

Socio-economic class, rurality and risk of cutaneous melanoma by site and gender in Sweden.

Background: Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is a cancer usually associated with high socio-economic level in the literature. Few studies have, however, assessed this relationship by gender and site or the association between CM and rurality.

Methods: A major-sized historical occupational Swedish cohort comprising 2,992,166 workers was used to estimate relative risk of cutaneous melanoma, broken down by gender and anatomical site, for occupational sectors (as a proxy of socio-economic class) and rurality.

Validation of the geographic position of EPER-Spain industries.

Background: The European Pollutant Emission Register in Spain (EPER-Spain) is a public inventory of pollutant industries created by decision of the European Union. The location of these industries is geocoded and the first published data correspond to 2001. Publication of these data will allow for quantification of the effect of proximity to one or more such plant on cancer and all-cause mortality observed in nearby towns.

Health-related quality of life and mental health in the medium-term aftermath of the Prestige oil spill in Galiza (Spain): a cross-sectional study.

Background: In 2002 the oil-tanker Prestige sank off the Galician coast. This study analyzes the effect of this accident on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and mental health in the affected population.

Methods: Using random sampling stratified by age and sex, 2700 residents were selected from 7 coastal and 7 inland Galician towns.