Complete cancer prevalence in Europe in 2020 by disease duration and country (EUROCARE-6): a population-based study.

Background: Cancer survivors-people living with and beyond cancer-are a growing population with different health needs depending on prognosis and time since diagnosis. Despite being increasingly necessary, complete information on cancer prevalence is not systematically available in all European countries. We aimed to fill this gap by analysing population-based cancer registry data from the EUROCARE-6 study.

A multipurpose TNM stage ontology for cancer registries.

Background: Population-based cancer registries are a critical reference source for the surveillance and control of cancer. Cancer registries work extensively with the internationally recognised TNM classification system used to stage solid tumours, but the system is complex and compounded by the different TNM editions in concurrent use. TNM ontologies exist but the design requirements are different for the needs of the clinical and cancer-registry domains.

Impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer registration and cancer care: a European survey.

Background: The coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic posed a number of challenges to the oncology community, particularly the diagnosis and care of cancer patients while ensuring safety from the virus for both patients and professionals: minimization of visits to the hospital, cancellation of the screening programmes and the difficulties in the management and operation of cancer registries (CRs) while working remotely. This article describes the effects in the medium term of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer registration in Europe, focusing on changes in cancer detection and treatment, possible reduction of CR resources and difficulties in the access to data sources.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed in June 2020 to the directors of 108 CRs from 34 countries affiliated to the European Network of Cancer Registries, providing a 37% response rate.

The European cancer burden in 2020: Incidence and mortality estimates for 40 countries and 25 major cancers.

Introduction: Europe is an important focus for compiling accurate and up-to-date world cancer statistics owing to its large share of the world's total cancer burden. This article presents incidence and mortality estimates for 25 major cancers across 40 individual countries within European areas and the European Union (EU-27) for the year 2020.

Methods: The estimated national incidence and mortality rates are based on statistical methodology previously applied and verified using the most recently collected incidence data from 151 population-based cancer registries, mortality data and 2020 population estimates.

An ontology-based approach for developing a harmonised data-validation tool for European cancer registration.

Background: Population-based cancer registries constitute an important information source in cancer epidemiology. Studies collating and comparing data across regional and national boundaries have proved important for deploying and evaluating effective cancer-control strategies. A critical aspect in correctly comparing cancer indicators across regional and national boundaries lies in ensuring a good and harmonised level of data quality, which is a primary motivator for a centralised collection of pseudonymised data.

Cancer registries - guardians of breast cancer biomarker information: A systematic review.

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death in females, with a large societal and economic impact. Decisions regarding its treatment are largely affected by the categorization into different subtypes with hormone receptor status and HER2 status being the most important predictive factors. Other biological markers play an important role for prognostic and predictive reasons.

Outdoor particulate matter (PM10) exposure and lung cancer risk in the EAGLE study.

Objective: Cohort studies in Europe, but not in North-America, showed an association between exposure to outdoor particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM10) and lung cancer risk. Only a case-control study on lung cancer and PM10 in South Korea has so far been performed. For the first time in Europe we analyzed quantitatively this association using a case-control study design in highly polluted areas in Italy.

Cancer incidence and mortality patterns in Europe: Estimates for 40 countries and 25 major cancers in 2018.

Introduction: Europe contains 9% of the world population but has a 25% share of the global cancer burden. Up-to-date cancer statistics in Europe are key to cancer planning. Cancer incidence and mortality estimates for 25 major cancers are presented for the 40 countries in the four United Nations-defined areas of Europe and for Europe and the European Union (EU-28) for 2018.

Variability of cancer risk within an area: time to complement the incidence rate.

The aim of this study was to show that age-adjusted cancer incidence rates for an area may not be representative of the incidence in subareas. We propose a simple measure to show the amount of geographical variability. European age-standardized incidence rates (ASRs) for 'all sites excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer', for men, in 2014, for Nordic countries as a whole, for each country (Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway) and for their regions, were retrieved from the Nordcan with corresponding standard errors SEs.

Survival of cancer patients in Italy.

Objectives: Population-based survival statistics are fundamental to assess the efficacy of services offered to improve cancer patients' prognosis. This study aims to update cancer survival estimates for the Italian population, as well as provide new measures, such as the crude probability of death, which takes into account the possibility of dying from causes other than cancer, and the change in life expectancy after a cancer diagnosis, to properly address various questions.

Results: The study includes 1,932,450 cancer cases detected by the Network of Italian Cancer Registries (AIRTUM) from 1994 to 2011 and provides estimates for 38 cancer sites and for allsites cancer.

Estimating deaths attributable to airborne particles: sensitivity of the results to different exposure assessment approaches.

Background: Epidemiological evidences support the existence of an effect of airborne particulate on population health. However, few studies evaluated the robustness of the results to different exposure assessment approaches. In this paper, we estimated short term effects and impacts of high levels of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM) and ≤2.

Using the Benford's Law as a First Step to Assess the Quality of the Cancer Registry Data.

Background: Benford's law states that the distribution of the first digit different from 0 [first significant digit (FSD)] in many collections of numbers is not uniform. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether population-based cancer incidence rates follow Benford's law, and if this can be used in their data quality check process.

Methods: We sampled 43 population-based cancer registry populations (CRPs) from the Cancer Incidence in 5 Continents-volume X (CI5-X).

Association Between Short-Term Exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 and Mortality in Susceptible Subgroups: A Multisite Case-Crossover Analysis of Individual Effect Modifiers.

We performed a multisite study to evaluate demographic and clinical conditions as potential modifiers of the particulate matter (PM)-mortality association. We selected 228,619 natural deaths of elderly persons (ages ≥65 years) that occurred in 12 Italian cities during the period 2006-2010. Individual data on causes of death, age, sex, location of death, and preexisting chronic and acute conditions from the previous 5 years' hospitalizations were collected.

Air pollution exposure, cause-specific deaths and hospitalizations in a highly polluted Italian region.

Background: The Lombardy region in northern Italy ranks among the most air polluted areas of Europe. Previous studies showed air pollution short-term effects on all-cause mortality. We examine here the effects of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10µm (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure on deaths and hospitalizations from specific causes, including cardiac, cerebrovascular and respiratory diseases.

The need for a rapid and comprehensive adoption of the revised European standard population in cancer incidence comparisons.

As cancer incidence varies according to age, it is important to rule out differences in age structures in any comparison. A common way of adjusting for these differences is using direct age standardization, which applies age-specific weights from a standard population. Eurostat has recently introduced a revised European standard population (RESP).

Effects of particulate matter exposure on multiple sclerosis hospital admission in Lombardy region, Italy.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, characterized by recurrent relapses of inflammation that cause mild to severe disability. Exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) has been associated with acute increases in systemic inflammatory responses and neuroinflammation. In the present study, we hypothesize that exposure to PM<10μm in diameter (PM10) might increase the occurrence of MS-related hospitalizations.

Screening for colorectal cancer in Italy: 2011-2012 survey.

The impact of organized screening programmes on colorectal cancer (CRC) can be observed at a population level only several years after the implementation of screening. We compared CRC characteristics by diagnostic modality (screen-detected, non-screen-detected) as an early outcome to monitor screening programme effectiveness. Data on CRCs diagnosed in Italy from 2000 to 2008 were collected by several cancer registries.

Desert Dust Outbreaks in Southern Europe: Contribution to Daily PM₁₀ Concentrations and Short-Term Associations with Mortality and Hospital Admissions.

Background: Evidence on the association between short-term exposure to desert dust and health outcomes is controversial.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the short-term effects of particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM10) on mortality and hospital admissions in 13 Southern European cities, distinguishing between PM10 originating from the desert and from other sources.

Methods: We identified desert dust advection days in multiple Mediterranean areas for 2001-2010 by combining modeling tools, back-trajectories, and satellite data.

[Air pollution and urgent hospital admissions in 25 Italian cities: results from the EpiAir2 project].

Objective: to evaluate the relationship between air pollution and hospital admissions in 25 Italian cities that took part in the EpiAir (Epidemiological surveillance of air pollution effects among Italian cities) project.

Design: study of time series with case-crossover methodology, with adjustment for meteorological and time-dependent variables. The association air pollution hospitalisation was analyzed in each of the 25 cities involved in the study; the overall estimates of effect were obtained subsequently by means of a meta-analysis.

[Air pollution and mortality in twenty-five Italian cities: results of the EpiAir2 Project].

Objectives: this study aims at presenting the results from the Italian EpiaAir2 Project on the short-term effects of air pollution on adult population (35+ years old) in 25 Italian cities.

Design: the short-term effects of air pollution on resident people died in their city were analysed adopting the time series approach. The association between increases in 10µg/m(3) in PM10, PM2.

Computed tomography measurement of rib cage morphometry in emphysema.

Background: Factors determining the shape of the human rib cage are not completely understood. We aimed to quantify the contribution of anthropometric and COPD-related changes to rib cage variability in adult cigarette smokers.

Methods: Rib cage diameters and areas (calculated from the inner surface of the rib cage) in 816 smokers with or without COPD, were evaluated at three anatomical levels using computed tomography (CT).

Short-term associations between fine and coarse particulate matter and hospitalizations in Southern Europe: results from the MED-PARTICLES project.

Background: Evidence on the short-term effects of fine and coarse particles on morbidity in Europe is scarce and inconsistent.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the association between daily concentrations of fine and coarse particles with hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions in eight Southern European cities, within the MED-PARTICLES project.

Methods: City-specific Poisson models were fitted to estimate associations of daily concentrations of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.

Associations between fine and coarse particles and mortality in Mediterranean cities: results from the MED-PARTICLES project.

Background: Few studies have investigated the independent health effects of different size fractions of particulate matter (PM) in multiple locations, especially in Europe.

Objectives: We estimated the short-term effects of PM with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.