Distribution of subsequent primary invasive melanomas following a first primary invasive OR in situ Melanoma Queensland, Australia, 1982-2010

IMPORTANCE: Melanoma survivors are known to have a highly elevated risk of subsequent primary melanomas. OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative risk of subsequent primary invasive melanomas following a first primary invasive or in situ melanoma, with a focus on body site. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective cohort studywas conducted using population-based administrative data for melanoma diagnoses collected by the Queensland Cancer Registry, Queensland, Australia. Deidentified records of all cases of melanoma among Queensland residents during the period 1982-2005 were obtained and reviewed to December 31, 2010. There were 39 668 eligible cases of first primary invasive melanoma and 22 845 cases of first primary in situ melanoma. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), a proxy measure for relative risk, were calculated by dividing the observed number of subsequent primary invasive melanomas by the product of the strata-specific incidence rates that occurred in the general population and the cumulative time at risk for the cohort. Synchronous subsequent melanomas (diagnosed within 60 days of the first primary melanoma) were excluded. Differences between SIRs were assessed using multivariate negative binomial regression adjusted for sex, age group, time to second diagnosis, and body site and expressed in terms of adjusted SIR ratios with corresponding 95%CIs. RESULTS: There were 5358 subsequent primary invasive melanomas diagnosed, resulting in SIRs of 5.42 (95%CI, 5.23-5.61) and 4.59 (4.37-4.82) for persons with a first primary invasive or in situ melanoma, respectively. The SIRs remained elevated throughout the follow-up period. In general, subsequent primary invasive melanomas were more likely to occur at the same body site as the initial invasive or in situ melanoma. The largest relative risk was for females with a first primary invasive melanoma on the head followed by a subsequent primary invasive melanoma also on the head (SIR, 13.32; 95%CI, 10.28-16.98). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Melanoma survivors require ongoing surveillance, with particular attention required for the body site of the initial lesion. Clinical practice guidelines have recognized the importance of monitoring for people with invasive melanoma; the results of the present study highlight the need for similar levels of supervision for those with a diagnosis of in situ melanoma

The relative risk of second primary cancers in Queensland, Australia: a retrospective cohort study

Background Cancer survivors face an increased likelihood of being subsequently diagnosed with another cancer. The aim of this study was to quantify the relative risk of survivors developing a second primary cancer in Queensland, Australia. Methods Standardised incidence rates stratified by type of first primary cancer, type of second primary cancer, sex, age at first diagnosis, period of first diagnosis and follow-up interval were calculated for residents of Queensland, Australia, who were diagnosed with a first primary invasive cancer between 1982 and 2001 and survived for a minimum of 2 months. Results A total of 23,580 second invasive primary cancers were observed over 1,370,247 years of follow-up among 204,962 cancer patients. Both males (SIR = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.20-1.24) and females (SIR = 1.36; 95% CI = 1.33-1.39) within the study cohort were found to have a significant excess risk of developing a second cancer relative to the incidence of cancer in the general population. The observed number of second primary cancers was also higher than expected within each age group, across all time periods and during each follow-up interval. Conclusions The excess risk of developing a second malignancy among cancer survivors can likely be attributed to factors including similar aetiologies, genetics and the effects of treatment, underlining the need for ongoing monitoring of cancer patients to detect subsequent tumours at an early stage. Education campaigns developed specifically for survivors may be required to lessen the prevalence of known cancer risk factors

Trends in incidence of childhood cancer in Australia, 1983–2006

Cancer risk is increased substantially in adult kidney transplant recipients, but the long-term risk of cancer in childhood recipients is unclear. Using the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry, the authors compared overall and site-specific incidences of cancer after transplantation in childhood recipients with population-based data by using standardized incidence ratios (SIRs). Among 1734 childhood recipients (median age 14 years, 57% male, 85% white), 289 (16.7%) developed cancer (196 nonmelanoma skin cancers, 143 nonskin cancers) over a median follow-up of 13.4 years. The 25-year cumulative incidences of any cancer were 27% (95% confidence intervals 24-30%), 20% (17-23%) for nonmelanoma skin cancer, and 14% (12-17%) for nonskin cancer (including melanoma). The SIR for nonskin cancer was 8.23 (95% CI 6.92-9.73), with the highest risk for posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (SIR 45.80, 95% CI 32.71-62.44) and cervical cancer (29.4, 95% CI 17.5-46.5). Increasing age at transplantation (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] per year 1.10, 95% CI 1.06-1.14), white race (aHR 3.36, 95% CI 1.61-6.79), and having a functioning transplant (aHR 2.27, 95% CI 1.47-3.71) were risk factors for cancer. Cancer risk, particularly for virus-related cancers, is increased substantially after kidney transplantation during childhood

The proportion of cancer-related entries in PubMed has increased considerably; is cancer truly "The Emperor of All Maladies"?

In this work, the public database of biomedical literature PubMed was mined using queries with combinations of keywords and year restrictions. It was found that the proportion of Cancer-related entries per year in PubMed has risen from around 6% in 1950 to more than 16% in 2016. This increase is not shared by other conditions such as AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Stroke and Infection some of which have, on the contrary, decreased as a proportion of the total entries per year. Organ-related queries were performed to analyse the variation of some specific cancers. A series of queries related to incidence, funding, and relationship with DNA, Computing and Mathematics, were performed to test correlation between the keywords, with the hope of elucidating the cause behind the rise of Cancer in PubMed. Interestingly, the proportion of Cancer-related entries that contain "DNA", "Computational" or "Mathematical" have increased, which suggests that the impact of these scientific advances on Cancer has been stronger than in other conditions. It is important to highlight that the results obtained with the data mining approach here presented are limited to the presence or absence of the keywords on a single, yet extensive, database. Therefore, results should be observed with caution. All the data used for this work is publicly available through PubMed and the UK's Office for National Statistics. All queries and figures were generated with the software platform Matlab and the files are available as supplementary material