Epidemiology and biological characteristics of male breast cancer in Italy.

Aim: To evaluate the epidemiology of male breast cancer (MBC) in Italy and to describe incidence and survival data in relation to age, morphology, year of incidence, geographic area, and possible association with other cancers compared with female BC.

Methods: Cases were extracted from 40 Italian Cancer Registries. Standardized incidence rates (SIR), age-specific rates, and 5-year survival were calculated.

Role of asbestos clearance in explaining long-term risk of pleural and peritoneal cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies.

Objectives: Models based on the multistage theory of cancer predict that rates of malignant mesothelioma continuously increase with time since first exposure (TSFE) to asbestos, even after the end of external exposure. However, recent epidemiological studies suggest that mesothelioma rates level off many years after first exposure to asbestos. A gradual clearance of asbestos from the lungs has been suggested as a possible explanation for this phenomenon.

Prognosis and cure of long-term cancer survivors: A population-based estimation.

Background: Increasing evidence of cure for some neoplasms has emerged in recent years. The study aimed to estimate population-based indicators of cancer cure.

Methods: Information on more than half a million cancer patients aged 15-74 years collected by population-based Italian cancer registries and mixture cure models were used to estimate the life expectancy of fatal tumors (LEFT), proportions of patients with similar death rates of the general population (cure fraction), and time to reach 5-year conditional relative survival (CRS) >90% or 95% (time to cure).

Robotic stereotactic radiotherapy for liver oligometastases from colorectal cancer: a single-center experience.

Purpose: To report on the safety and clinical benefit of robotic stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) for liver oligometastatic colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: Robotic SBRT was applied to oligometastatic CRC patients, defined as having 1-4 liver metastases and absent or controlled extrahepatic disease. The intended prescription dose was 37.

Assessing Emotional Functioning with Increased Power: Relative Validity of a Customized EORTC Short Form in the International ACTION Trial.

Objectives: There is a need to improve the assessment of emotional functioning (EF). In the international Advance Care Planning: an Innovative Palliative Care Intervention to Improve Quality of Life in Cancer Patients - a Multi-Centre Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial (ACTION) trial involving patients with advanced cancer, EF was assessed by a customized 10-item short form (EF10). The EF10 is based on the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) EF item bank and has the potential for greater precision than the common EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 four-item scale (EF4).

Relationships among unmet needs, depression, and anxiety in non-advanced cancer patients.

Introduction: In oncology settings, less attention is given to patients' unmet needs and to existential and emotional distress compared to physical symptoms. We aimed to evaluate correlations between unmet needs and emotional distress (self-reported anxiety and depression) in a consecutive cohort of cancer patients. The influence of sociodemographic and clinical factors was also considered.

Health surveillance for former asbestos exposed worker: a specific programme developed in an Italian region.

Asbestos-related diseases usually have a long latency since first exposure and this legitimates a health surveillance programme addressed to asbestos workers after the cessation of their occupational exposure. After a brief history of health surveillance initiatives performed in Italy as well as in other countries, we describe a regional programme for former asbestos-exposed workers, focusing on organizational features. A regional group of experts defined its operational and economical aspects.

The impact of overdiagnosis on thyroid cancer epidemic in Italy,1998-2012.

Aims: In Italy, incidence rates of thyroid cancer (TC) are among the highest worldwide with substantial intracountry heterogeneity. The aim of the study was to examine time trends of TC incidence in Italy and to estimate the proportion of TC cases potentially attributable to overdiagnosis.

Methods: Data on TC cases reported to Italian cancer registries during 1998-2012 aged <85 years were included.

Characteristics of people living in Italy after a cancer diagnosis in 2010 and projections to 2020.

Background: Estimates of cancer prevalence are widely based on limited duration, often including patients living after a cancer diagnosis made in the previous 5 years and less frequently on complete prevalence (i.e., including all patients regardless of the time elapsed since diagnosis).

The evolution of the epidemiological landscape of head and neck cancer in Italy: Is there evidence for an increase in the incidence of potentially HPV-related carcinomas?

The current study aimed to investigate the incidence and survival patterns of HNSCCs arising from different anatomic sites, potentially related (the oropharynx) or unrelated (the oral cavity, the larynx/hypopharynx) to HPV, to provide clues on possible growing impact of HPV in the epidemiology of HNSCC in Italy. Epidemiological data were retrieved from ten long-term Cancer Registries covering a population of 7.8 million inhabitants.

Glaucoma in patients with shunt-treated normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Objective: Changes in the pressure gradient between intraocular and intracranial compartments at the lamina cribrosa level are a possible explanation of normal tension glaucoma (NTG). Shunt-treated normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a model for testing whether the increase (time from disease onset to CSF shunt placement, i.e.

Sinonasal cancer in the Italian national surveillance system: Epidemiology, occupation, and public health implications.

Background: Sinonasal cancer (SNC) is a rare tumor with predominant occupational etiology associated with exposures to specific carcinogens. The aim of this study is to describe SNC cases recorded in Italy in the period 2000-2016.

Methods: Clinical information, occupational history, and lifestyle habits of SNC cases collected in the Italian Sinonasal Cancer Register were examined.

Longitudinal assessment of the impact of adapted physical activity on upper limb disability and quality of life in breast cancer survivors from an Italian cohort.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific adapted physical activity (APA) protocol on upper limb disability and quality of life in breast cancer survivors and to assess longitudinally the possible role of APA on long-term benefits.

Methods: Breast cancer survivors from an Italian cohort were assessed by fitness tests (shoulder-arm mobility, range of motion, and back flexibility) before and after 8-week APA. Quality of life and back and surgical shoulder pain intensity were evaluated by Short Form-12 and numerical rating scale questionnaires, respectively.

Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: mortality trends of asbestos-related neoplasms after long time since first exposure.

Objective: Asbestos is a known human carcinogen, with evidence for malignant mesothelioma (MM), cancers of lung, ovary, larynx and possibly other organs. MM rates are predicted to increase with a power of time since first exposure (TSFE), but the possible long-term attenuation of the trend is debated. The asbestos ban enforced in Italy in 1992 gives an opportunity to measure long-term cancer risk in formerly exposed workers.

Palliative sedation: ethical aspects.

Palliative sedation (PS), the medical act of decreasing a patient's awareness to relieve otherwise intractable suffering, is considered by some commentators to be controversial because of its consequences on residual survival and/or quality of life, and to be inappropriate for treating pure existential suffering. We will argue that PS must be always proportional, i.e.

Interruptions and multitasking in surgery: a multicentre observational study of the daily work patterns of doctors and nurses.

The aim of this study was to obtain baseline data on doctors' and nurses' work activities and rates of interruptions and multitasking to improve work organisation and processes. Data were collected in six surgical units with the WOMBAT (Work Observation Method by Activity Timing) tool. Results show that doctors and nurses received approximately 13 interruptions per hour, or one interruption every 4.

Cost analysis of colorectal cancer screening with CT colonography in Italy.

Objective: Unit costs of screening CT colonography (CTC) can be useful for cost-effectiveness analyses and for health care decision-making. We evaluated the unit costs of CTC as a primary screening test for colorectal cancer in the setting of a randomized trial in Italy.

Methods: Data were collected within the randomized SAVE trial.

Personalised informed choice on evidence and controversy on mammography screening: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: In Italy women aged 50-69 are invited for a population-based breast cancer (BC) screening. Physicians, policy makers and patients associations agree on the need to inform women about the benefits and harms in order to permit an informed decision. Decision aids (DA) are an effective way to support people in their decisions about health.

Smoking in Italy in 2015-2016: prevalence, trends, roll-your-own cigarettes, and attitudes towards incoming regulations.

Purpose: In 2016, a series of selective tobacco regulations, which did not affect tobacco price, came into force in Italy. To understand how Italians accepted the new norms, we analyzed data from our 2 most recent surveys among those we annually conduct on tobacco.

Methods: In 2015 and 2016, we conducted 2 representative cross-sectional studies focused on the new forthcoming tobacco legislation on a total sample of 6,046 Italians aged ≥15 years.

Effects of fecal sampling on preanalytical and analytical phases in quantitative fecal immunochemical tests for hemoglobin.

Background: Information on preanalytical variability is mandatory to bring laboratories up to ISO 15189 requirements. Fecal sampling is greatly affected by lack of harmonization in laboratory medicine. The aims of this study were to obtain information on the devices used for fecal sampling and to explore the effect of different amounts of feces on the results from the fecal immunochemical test for hemoglobin (FIT-Hb).

CT colonography: role in FOBT-based screening programs for colorectal cancer.

Computed tomographic colonography (CTC) is a minimally invasive imaging examination for the colon, and is safe, well tolerated and accurate for the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) and advanced adenoma. While the role of CTC as a primary test for population screening of CRC is under investigation, the fecal occult blood test (FOBT) has been recommended for population screening of CRC in Europe. Subjects with positive FOBT are invited to undergo total colonoscopy, which has some critical issues, such as suboptimal compliance, contraindications and the possibility of an incomplete exploration of the colon.

An estimate of the number of people in Italy living after a childhood cancer.

Cancers diagnosed in children below the age of 15 years represent 1.2% of all cancer cases, and survival after a childhood cancer has greatly improved over the past 40 years in all high income countries. This study aims to estimate the number of people living in Italy after a childhood cancer for all cancers combined and for a selection of cancer types.