The new "Welding Machine" for the DUs integration in the KM3NeT experiment: Mechanical and Pneumatic parts

This note describes one of the tools used during Process-1 of the integration of the Detection Units (DUs) in the KM3NeT experiment. In particular, the device is designed to seal the Break-out-box (BOB). The BOB is a box interface between a Digital Optical Module (DOM) and the electro-optical cable (VEOC) for power and optical connection of each optical module (DOM) to the DU. The original manual version of the tool developed by NIKHEF was then automatized by INFN-LNS in order to guarantee a reproducible operation in the recursive process of the DU integration and two samples have been realized for the integration sites at LNS and Genova respectively

New national and regional Annex I Habitat records: from #60 to #82

New Italian data on the distribution of the Annex I Habitats are reported in this contribution. Specifically, 8 new occurrences in Natura 2000 sites are presented and 49 new cells are added in the EEA 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Campania, Calabria, Marche, Piedmont, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria. Relevés and figures are provided as Supplementary material respectively 1 and 2

Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 11

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of vascular flora alien to Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates published elsewhere are provided as Suppl. material 1

Cancer cure for 32 cancer types: results from the EUROCARE-5 study.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have estimated the probability of being cured for cancer patients. This study aims to estimate population-based indicators of cancer cure in Europe by type, sex, age and period. METHODS: 7.2 million cancer patients (42 population-based cancer registries in 17 European countries) diagnosed at ages 15-74 years in 1990-2007 with follow-up to 2008 were selected from the EUROCARE-5 dataset. Mixture-cure models were used to estimate: (i) life expectancy of fatal cases (LEF); (ii) cure fraction (CF) as proportion of patients with same death rates as the general population; (iii) time to cure (TTC) as time to reach 5-year conditional relative survival (CRS) >95%. RESULTS: LEF ranged from 10 years for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients to 5 years for women with breast cancer. The CF was 94% for testis, 87% for thyroid cancer in women and 70% in men, 86% for skin melanoma in women and 76% in men, 66% for breast, 63% for prostate and <10% for liver, lung and pancreatic cancers. TTC was <5 years for testis and thyroid cancer patients diagnosed below age 55 years, and <10 years for stomach, colorectal, corpus uteri and melanoma patients of all ages. For breast and prostate cancers, a small excess (CRS < 95%) remained for at least 15 years. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates from this analysis should help to reduce unneeded medicalization and costs. They represent an opportunity to improve patients' quality of life

Cancer cure for 32 cancer types: results from the EUROCARE-5 study.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have estimated the probability of being cured for cancer patients. This study aims to estimate population-based indicators of cancer cure in Europe by type, sex, age and period. METHODS: 7.2 million cancer patients (42 population-based cancer registries in 17 European countries) diagnosed at ages 15-74 years in 1990-2007 with follow-up to 2008 were selected from the EUROCARE-5 dataset. Mixture-cure models were used to estimate: (i) life expectancy of fatal cases (LEF); (ii) cure fraction (CF) as proportion of patients with same death rates as the general population; (iii) time to cure (TTC) as time to reach 5-year conditional relative survival (CRS) >95%. RESULTS: LEF ranged from 10 years for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients to 5 years for women with breast cancer. The CF was 94% for testis, 87% for thyroid cancer in women and 70% in men, 86% for skin melanoma in women and 76% in men, 66% for breast, 63% for prostate and <10% for liver, lung and pancreatic cancers. TTC was <5 years for testis and thyroid cancer patients diagnosed below age 55 years, and <10 years for stomach, colorectal, corpus uteri and melanoma patients of all ages. For breast and prostate cancers, a small excess (CRS < 95%) remained for at least 15 years. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates from this analysis should help to reduce unneeded medicalization and costs. They represent an opportunity to improve patients' quality of life

ITALIAN CANCER FIGURES - REPORT 2015: The burden of rare cancers in Italy = I TUMORI IN ITALIA - RAPPORTO 2015: I tumori rari in Italia

OBJECTIVES: This collaborative study, based on data collected by the network of Italian Cancer Registries (AIRTUM), describes the burden of rare cancers in Italy. Estimated number of new rare cancer cases yearly diagnosed (incidence), proportion of patients alive after diagnosis (survival), and estimated number of people still alive after a new cancer diagnosis (prevalence) are provided for about 200 different cancer entities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data herein presented were provided by AIRTUM population- based cancer registries (CRs), covering nowadays 52% of the Italian population. This monograph uses the AIRTUM database (January 2015), which includes all malignant cancer cases diagnosed between 1976 and 2010. All cases are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3). Data underwent standard quality checks (described in the AIRTUM data management protocol) and were checked against rare-cancer specific quality indicators proposed and published by RARECARE and HAEMACARE (www.rarecarenet.eu; www.haemacare.eu). The definition and list of rare cancers proposed by the RARECAREnet "Information Network on Rare Cancers" project were adopted: rare cancers are entities (defined as a combination of topographical and morphological codes of the ICD-O-3) having an incidence rate of less than 6 per 100,000 per year in the European population. This monograph presents 198 rare cancers grouped in 14 major groups. Crude incidence rates were estimated as the number of all new cancers occurring in 2000-2010 divided by the overall population at risk, for males and females (also for gender-specific tumours).The proportion of rare cancers out of the total cancers (rare and common) by site was also calculated. Incidence rates by sex and age are reported. The expected number of new cases in 2015 in Italy was estimated assuming the incidence in Italy to be the same as in the AIRTUM area. One- and 5-year relative survival estimates of cases aged 0-99 years diagnosed between 2000 and 2008 in the AIRTUM database, and followed up to 31 December 2009, were calculated using complete cohort survival analysis. To estimate the observed prevalence in Italy, incidence and follow-up data from 11 CRs for the period 1992-2006 were used, with a prevalence index date of 1 January 2007. Observed prevalence in the general population was disentangled by time prior to the reference date (≤2 years, 2-5 years, ≤15 years). To calculate the complete prevalence proportion at 1 January 2007 in Italy, the 15-year observed prevalence was corrected by the completeness index, in order to account for those cancer survivors diagnosed before the cancer registry activity started. The completeness index by cancer and age was obtained by means of statistical regression models, using incidence and survival data available in the European RARECAREnet data. RESULTS: In total, 339,403 tumours were included in the incidence analysis. The annual incidence rate (IR) of all 198 rare cancers in the period 2000-2010 was 147 per 100,000 per year, corresponding to about 89,000 new diagnoses in Italy each year, accounting for 25% of all cancer. Five cancers, rare at European level, were not rare in Italy because their IR was higher than 6 per 100,000; these tumours were: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma of larynx (whose IRs in Italy were 7 per 100,000), multiple myeloma (IR: 8 per 100,000), hepatocellular carcinoma (IR: 9 per 100,000) and carcinoma of thyroid gland (IR: 14 per 100,000). Among the remaining 193 rare cancers, more than two thirds (No. 139) had an annual IR &lt;0.5 per 100,000, accounting for about 7,100 new cancers cases; for 25 cancer types, the IR ranged between 0.5 and 1 per 100,000, accounting for about 10,000 new diagnoses; while for 29 cancer types the IR was between 1 and 6 per 100,000, accounting for about 41,000 new cancer cases. Among all rare cancers diagnosed in Italy, 7% were rare haematological diseases (IR: 41 per 100,000), 18% were solid rare cancers. Among the latter, the rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system were the most common (23%, IR: 26 per 100,000), followed by epithelial tumours of head and neck (17%, IR: 19) and rare cancers of the female genital system (17%, IR: 17), endocrine tumours (13% including thyroid carcinomas and less than 1% with an IR of 0.4 excluding thyroid carcinomas), sarcomas (8%, IR: 9 per 100,000), central nervous system tumours and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity (5%with an IR equal to 6 and 5 per 100,000, respectively). The remaining (rare male genital tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; tumours of eye, IR: 0.7 per 100,000; neuroendocrine tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; embryonal tumours, IR: 0.4 per 100,000; rare skin tumours and malignant melanoma of mucosae, IR: 0.8 per 100,000) each constituted &lt;4% of all solid rare cancers. Patients with rare cancers were on average younger than those with common cancers. Essentially, all childhood cancers were rare, while after age 40 years, the common cancers (breast, prostate, colon, rectum, and lung) became increasingly more frequent. For 254,821 rare cancers diagnosed in 2000-2008, 5-year RS was on average 55%, lower than the corresponding figures for patients with common cancers (68%). RS was lower for rare cancers than for common cancers at 1 year and continued to diverge up to 3 years, while the gap remained constant from 3 to 5 years after diagnosis. For rare and common cancers, survival decreased with increasing age. Five-year RS was similar and high for both rare and common cancers up to 54 years; it decreased with age, especially after 54 years, with the elderly (75+ years) having a 37% and 20% lower survival than those aged 55-64 years for rare and common cancers, respectively. We estimated that about 900,000 people were alive in Italy with a previous diagnosis of a rare cancer in 2010 (prevalence). The highest prevalence was observed for rare haematological diseases (278 per 100,000) and rare tumours of the female genital system (265 per 100,000). Very low prevalence (&lt;10 prt 100,000) was observed for rare epithelial skin cancers, for rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity. COMMENTS: One in four cancers cases diagnosed in Italy is a rare cancer, in agreement with estimates of 24% calculated in Europe overall. In Italy, the group of all rare cancers combined, include 5 cancer types with an IR&gt;6 per 100,000 in Italy, in particular thyroid cancer (IR: 14 per 100,000).The exclusion of thyroid carcinoma from rare cancers reduces the proportion of them in Italy in 2010 to 22%. Differences in incidence across population can be due to the different distribution of risk factors (whether environmental, lifestyle, occupational, or genetic), heterogeneous diagnostic intensity activity, as well as different diagnostic capacity; moreover heterogeneity in accuracy of registration may determine some minor differences in the account of rare cancers. Rare cancers had worse prognosis than common cancers at 1, 3, and 5 years from diagnosis. Differences between rare and common cancers were small 1 year after diagnosis, but survival for rare cancers declined more markedly thereafter, consistent with the idea that treatments for rare cancers are less effective than those for common cancers. However, differences in stage at diagnosis could not be excluded, as 1- and 3-year RS for rare cancers was lower than the corresponding figures for common cancers. Moreover, rare cancers include many cancer entities with a bad prognosis (5-year RS &lt;50%): cancer of head and neck, oesophagus, small intestine, ovary, brain, biliary tract, liver, pleura, multiple myeloma, acute myeloid and lymphatic leukaemia; in contrast, most common cancer cases are breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, which have a good prognosis. The high prevalence observed for rare haematological diseases and rare tumours of the female genital system is due to their high incidence (the majority of haematological diseases are rare and gynaecological cancers added up to fairly high incidence rates) and relatively good prognosis. The low prevalence of rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system was due to the low survival rates of the majority of tumours included in this group (oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, and liver), regardless of the high incidence rate of rare epithelial cancers of these sites. This AIRTUM study confirms that rare cancers are a major public health problem in Italy and provides quantitative estimations, for the first time in Italy, to a problem long known to exist. This monograph provides detailed epidemiologic indicators for almost 200 rare cancers, the majority of which (72%) are very rare (IR&lt;0.5 per 100,000). These data are of major interest for different stakeholders. Health care planners can find useful information herein to properly plan and think of how to reorganise health care services. Researchers now have numbers to design clinical trials considering alternative study designs and statistical approaches. Population-based cancer registries with good quality data are the best source of information to describe the rare cancer burden in a population

Estimation of cancer incidence and survival parameters from population-based registries

Printed from http://www.irpps.cnr.it target=NewWindow>www.irpps.cnr.it (March 2005)Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 , Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Rare thoracic cancers, including peritoneum mesothelioma

Rare thoracic cancers include those of the trachea, thymus and mesothelioma (including peritoneum mesothelioma). The aim of this study was to describe the incidence, prevalence and survival of rare thoracic tumours using a large database, which includes cancer patients diagnosed from 1978 to 2002, registered in 89 population-based cancer registries (CRs) and followed-up to 31st December 2003.\ud \ud Over 17,688 cases of rare thoracic cancers were selected based on the list of the RACECARE project.\ud \ud Mesothelioma was the most common tumour (19 per million per year) followed by epithelial tumours of the trachea and thymus (1.3 and 1.7, respectively). The age standardised incidence rates of epithelial tumours of the trachea was double in Eastern and Southern Europe versus the other European regions: 2 per million per year. Epithelial tumours of the thymus had the lowest incidence in Northern and Eastern Europe and UK and Ireland1 and somewhat higher incidence in Central and Southern Europe.2 Highest incidence in mesothelioma was seen in UK and Ireland23 and lowest in Eastern Europe.4\ud \ud Patients with tumours of the thymus had the best prognosis (1-year survival 85%, 66% at 5 years). Five year survival was lowest for the mesothelioma 5% compared to 14% of patients with tumours of the trachea. Mesothelioma was the most prevalent rare cancer (12,000 cases), followed by thymus (7000) and trachea (1400).\ud \ud Cancer Registry (CR) data play an important role in revealing the burden of rare thoracic cancers and monitoring the effect of regulations on asbestos use and smoking related policies

Programma Nazionale Esiti (PNE)

Il lavoro di monitoraggio e supporto che da diversi anni AGENAS svolge attraverso il Piano Nazionale Esiti a livello nazionale e regionale, in favore dei decisori e dei professionisti sanitari impegnati nell’assistenza sanitaria, si arricchisce quest’anno di un valore aggiunto: i risultati dell’edizione 2021 offrono uno spaccato sull’emergenza epidemiologica e sulle dinamiche che il COVID-19 ha determinato rispetto all’organizzazione dei servizi, attraverso un confronto ampio e particolareggiato dei dati di attività relativi all’anno 2020 con quelli della fase pre-pandemica. La sistematicità e la capillarità dell’approccio PNE nel valutare comparativamente l’efficacia, l’appropriatezza, l’equità e la sicurezza delle cure garantite dal servizio Sanitario Nazionale contribuiscono, infatti, a mostrare in che misura e rispetto a quali ambiti i sistemi sanitari regionali abbiano tenuto di fronte all’urto pandemico, continuando a garantire alla popolazione l’erogazione dei servizi essenziali, e quanto sia stato invece differito. Quest’anno, inoltre, accanto ai tradizionali indicatori di performance, sono state introdotte nuove misure volte a valutare i volumi per singolo operatore, il timing di effettuazione di prestazioni chirurgiche salvavita e le disuguaglianze nell’assistenza sanitaria. I dati, elaborati attraverso il calcolo di 184 indicatori per svariati ambiti nosologici e setting assistenziali, ci mostrano la grande resilienza del SSN, a dispetto delle difficoltà che pure insistono sull’organizzazione sanitaria e che la pandemia ha esacerbato; e ci indicano la strada da battere per riprogrammare la sanità del futuro a partire da alcune criticità quali la frammentarietà della casistica ospedaliera, l’inappropriatezza clinica, la bassa tempestività e la disomogeneità nell’accesso ai trattamenti, per aree territoriali e con riferimento ai gruppi più vulnerabili della popolazione. Quanto ottenuto risulta particolarmente prezioso per la programmazione futura delle attività da parte delle Regioni e delle Province Autonome, i cui servizi sanitari sono stati gravati da questa situazione di crisi, in un’ottica di accompagnamento e re-indirizzo delle azioni volti prevalentemente al recupero delle prestazioni sanitarie non erogate e all’abbattimento dei tempi di attesa. Per il futuro, l’intento di AGENAS è quello di proseguire con le attività di monitoraggio e valutazione, anche nella prospettiva di sostenere la riorganizzazione del SSN dopo la pandemia, in una chiave di maggiore efficienza ed efficacia, facendo emergere e mettendo a sistema le esperienze virtuose, per contribuire alla diffusione delle buone prassi esistenti e orientare il cambiamento