Mortality from major cancer sites in the European Union, 1955-1998

After long-term rises, over the last decade age-standardised mortality from most common cancer sites has fallen in the European Union (EU). For males, the fall was 11% for lung and intestines, 12% for bladder, 6% for oral cavity and pharynx, and 5% for oesophagus. For females, the fall was 7% for breast and 21% for intestines. There were also persisting declines in stomach cancer (30% in both sexes), uterus (mainly cervix, -26%) and leukaemias (-10%). Mortality rates for other common neoplasms, including pancreas for both sexes, prostate and ovary, tended to stabilise. The only unfavourable trends were observed for female lung cancer (+15%). Lung cancer rates in women from the EU are approximately one-third of those in the USA, and 50% lower than breast cancer rates in the EU. Lung cancer rates in European women have also tended to stabilise below the age of 75 years. Thus, effective interventions on tobacco control could, in principle, avoid a major lung cancer epidemic in European wome

Changed trends of cancer mortality in the elderly

Summary Background: Trends in cancer mortality for the elderly have long been unfavourable. Materials and methods: Mortality from 12 major cancer sites, plus total cancer mortality at age 65-84 in 23 European countries, the US and Japan was analyzed. Results: Between the late 1980s and the late 1990s total cancer mortality at age 65 to 84 has been declining in the European Union (UE) (−5.5% in males, −4.5% in females), in United States (US) males (−2.3%), but not females (+4.4%), and in Japanese females (−5.6%), but not males (+6.3%). Cancer mortality in the elderly rose for both sexes in eastern Europe. Gastric cancer mortality declined in all the areas. Lung cancer rates declined over the last decade by 8.5% in males in the EU, and by 0.9% in the US. Rates were still increasing in eastern Europe, in Japanese males and in females in all areas. Pancreatic mortality rates were increasing in both sexes in the EU and Japan up to the late 1980s, and in eastern Europe up to the 1990s, whereas rates for US males have been declining over recent years. Breast cancer mortality has declined over the last decade by 8% in the US and by 3% in the EU, while it has risen in eastern Europe and in Japan. Mortality from breast and prostate as well as ovarian cancer remained however low in elderly Japanese. Prostate cancer mortality declined in the EU and in the US, whereas it rose in eastern Europe and in Japan. Mortality from lymphomas and multiple myeloma rose in both sexes and various geographic areas, but improved diagnosis and certification may have played a role in these trends. Mortality from leukemia in the elderly increased in eastern Europe and Japan, but was stable in the US and the EU. Conclusions: Cancer mortality in the elderly has stopped systematically rising, and is on the decline in males since the late 1980

Dietary Indicators of Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer

The relationship between frequency of consumption of a selected number of indicator foods and oral and oropharyngeal cancer risk was analysed in a case-control study conducted in Northern Italy on 105 cases of oral and pharyngeal cancer and 1169 controls in hospital for acute, non-neoplastic or digestive diseases. Besides significant and strong direct associations with tobacco (relative risk, RR = 11.0 for current versus never smokers) and alcohol (RR = 5.8 for upper versus lower consumption tertile), consumption of six food items (milk, meat, cheese, carrots, green vegetables and fruit) were inversely and significantly related to oral and pharyngeal cancer risk. The strongest protection was apparently related to frequent fruit consumption, with RRs of 0.8 and 0.2 in the two highest tertiles. Allowance for major potential confounding factors, including tobacco, alcohol and social class indicators explained only part of the dietary correlates observed. The two items remaining significant after multivariate analysis were fruit (RR = 0.3 for the upper tertile) and alcohol (RR = 3.8 for the upper tertile). The associations observed may simply reflect a generally poorer nutritional status in the cases, although the observation that fruit consumption appears to be a particularly important protective factor against oropharyngeal cencer is of potential interest, in terms of aetiological clues and preventive implication

Risk Factors for Gallstone Disease Requiring Surgery

Risk factors for cholelithiasis were investigated in a case-control study conducted in northern Italy on 195 incident cases of gallstone disease requiring surgery (119 females, 76 males) and 1122 controls in hospital for acute, nondigestive tract, non-neoplastic conditions. There was no consistent association with socio-demographic indicators, such as marital status, education and social class nor with smoking and coffee consumption. The relative risk of cholelithiasis decreased with increasing alcohol consumption: compared with non-drinkers, the odds ratio (OR) was 0.8 for one to three drinks per day and 0.5 for over three. A direct association was observed with measures of body weight: relative to leaner individuals, the multivariate ORs were 1.2, 2.1 and 2.4 for subsequent levels of body mass. These trends in risk were statistically significant, consistent in the two sexes, and not apparently modified by adjustment for major identified potential confounding factors. History of hepatitis and liver cirrhosis were reported more frequently by cases, but it is difficult to assess the role of recall bias on these risk factors. No association was found with diabetes, thyroid disease and several digestive tract disorders. For females, no consistent pattern of risk was observed up to four births, but women with five or more births had an OR of 2.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.1-7.3). The risk decreased with increasing age at first and last birth, both trends being statistically significant. Overweight and alcohol consumption were the most important risk and protective factors respectively for cholelithiasis requiring surgical intervention in this populatio

The Space Density of low redshift AGN

We present a new determination of the optical luminosity function (OLF) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at low redshifts (z<0.15) based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of X-ray-selected AGN. The HST observations have allowed us to derive a true nuclear luminosity function for these AGN. The resulting OLF illustrates a two-power-law form similar to that derived for QSOs at higher redshifts. At bright magnitudes, M_B<-20, the OLF derived here exhibits good agreement with that derived from the Hamburg/ESO QSO survey. However, the single power law form for the OLF derived from the Hamburg/ESO survey is strongly ruled out by our data at M_B>-20. Although the estimate of the OLF is best-fit by a power law slope at M_B<-20.5 that is flatter than the slope of the OLF derived at z>0.35, the binned estimate of the low redshift OLF is still consistent with an extrapolation of the $z>0.35$ OLF based on pure luminosity evolution.Comment: MNRAS accepted (6 pages, 6 figures

Quasar clustering: evidence for an increase with redshift and implications for the nature of AGNs

The evolution of quasar clustering is investigated with a new sample of 388 quasars with 0.3<z<=2.2, B<=20.5 and Mb<-23, selected over an area of 24.6 sq. deg. in the South Galactic Pole. Assuming a two-point correlation function of the form xi(r) = (r/r_o)^-1.8, we detect clustering with r_0=6.2 +/- 1.6 h^-1 comoving Mpc at an average redshift of z=1.3. We find a 2 sigma significant increase of the quasar clustering between z=0.95 and z=1.8, independent of the quasar absolute magnitude and inconsistent with recent evidence on the evolution of galaxy clustering. If other quasar samples are added (resulting in a total data-set of 737 quasars) the increase of the quasar clustering is still favoured although it becomes less significant. We find epsilon=-2.5. Evolutionary parameters epsilon>0.0 are excluded at a 0.3% probability level, to be compared with epsilon=0.8 found for galaxies. The observed clustering properties appear qualitatively consistent with a scenario of Omega=1 CDM in which a) the difference between the quasar and the galaxy clustering can be explained as a difference in the effective bias and redshift distributions, and b) the quasars, with a lifetime of t~10^8 yr, sparsely sample halos of mass greater than M_min~10^12-10^13 h^-1 M_sun. We discuss also the possibility that the observed change in the quasar clustering is due to an increase in the fraction of early-type galaxies as quasar hosts at high z.Comment: 8 pages including 2 eps figures, LaTeX (AAS v4.0), ApJ in pres

A case-control study of diabetes mellitus and cancer risk.

The relationship between diabetes mellitus and cancer risk was investigated using data from an integrated series of case-control studies conducted in Northern Italy between 1983 and 1992. Cases were 9,991 patients with incident, histologically confirmed neoplasms below age 75, including 181 cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, 316 of the oesophagus, 723 of the stomach, 828 of the colon, 498 of the rectum, 320 of the liver, 58 of the gall bladder, 362 of the pancreas, 242 of the larynx, 3,415 of the breast, 726 of the endometrium, 971 of the ovary, 125 of the prostate, 431 of the bladder, 187 of the kidney, 208 of the thyroid, 80 Hodgkin's lymphomas, 200 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and 120 multiple myelomas. Controls were 7,834 subjects in hospital for acute, non-neoplastic, non-metabolic, non-hormone-related disorders. A history of diabetes was reported by 5.1% of male and 5.4% of female controls. Significantly elevated relative risks (RRs) among subjects with diabetes were observed for cancers of the liver [RR = 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0-3.9], pancreas (RR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.5-2.9) and endometrium (RR 3.4, 95% CI 2.7-4.3). After allowance for obesity and education as well as age and sex, the RRs were 3.0 for liver, 2.3 for pancreas, and 2.8 for endometrium. Diabetic subjects had no elevated risk for any of the other cancer sites considered. For liver and endometrial cancer the RRs remained elevated up to 10 years after diagnosis of diabetes (RR 2.6 and 2.0 respectively), while the RR for pancreatic cancer declined from 3.2 in the first 5 years after diagnosis of diabetes to 2.3 from 5 to 9 years and to 1.3 (95% CI 0.7-2.3) 10 or more years since diagnosis. This suggests that the relationship between diabetes mellitus and liver and endometrial cancer is probably real, while that with pancreatic cancer is compatible with diabetes being an early symptom of the disease, or at least of preneoplastic lesions

Trends in cancer mortality in the European Union and accession countries, 1980-2000

Cancer mortality rates and trends over the period 1980-2000 for accession countries to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, which include a total of 75 million inhabitants, were abstracted from the World Health Organization (WHO) database, together with, for comparative purposes, those of the current EU. Total cancer mortality for men was 166/100 000 in the EU, but ranged between 195 (Lithuania) and 269/100 000 (Hungary) in central and eastern European accession countries. This excess related to most cancer sites, including lung and other tobacco-related neoplasms, but also stomach, intestines and liver, and a few neoplasms amenable to treatment, such as testis, Hodgkin's disease and leukaemias. Overall cancer mortality for women was 95/100 000 in the EU, and ranged between 100 and 110/100 000 in several central and eastern European countries, and up to 120/100 000 in the Czech Republic and 138/100 000 in Hungary. The latter two countries had a substantial excess in female mortality for lung cancer, but also for several other sites. Furthermore, for stomach and especially (cervix) uteri, female rates were substantially higher in central and eastern European accession countries. Over the last two decades, trends in mortality were systematically less favourable in accession countries than in the EU. Most of the unfavourable patterns and trends in cancer mortality in accession countries are due to recognised, and hence potentially avoidable, causes of cancer, including tobacco, alcohol, dietary habits, pollution and hepatitis B, plus inadequate screening, diagnosis and treatment. Consequently, the application of available knowledge on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment may substantially reduce the disadvantage now registered in the cancer mortality of central and eastern European accession countrie

Essential considerations in the investigation of associations between insulin and cancer risk using prescription databases

Boyle, P Ford, I Robertson, Jfr La Vecchia, C Boffetta, P Autier, P eng England 2009/01/01 00:00 Ecancermedicalscience. 2009;3:174. doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2009.174. Epub 2009 Dec 11.International audienceno abstrac