Luigino Dal Maso

Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS · Cancer Epidemiology

Objective: A decrease in the use of radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment for thyroid cancer has been described in the last decade in the US following subsequent updates of the American Thyroid Association guidelines. By contrast, population-based data from European countries are lacking. The study aims to assess the frequency and long-term trends in...

Introduction Comparable indicators on complete cancer prevalence are increasingly needed in Europe to support survivorship care planning. Direct measures can be biased by limited registration time and estimates are needed to recover long term survivors. The completeness index method, based on incidence and survival modelling, is the standard most v...

In women aged ≥70 with low-risk breast cancer (BrC), some major international guidelines recommend against sentinel lymph node biopsy (for example, those from the Society of Surgical Oncology, U.S.) and post-lumpectomy radiotherapy (for example, those from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, U.S.). We assessed the frequency of both procedure...

Background: Adult obesity is a strong risk factor for endometrial cancer (EC); however, associations of early life obesity with EC are inconclusive. We evaluated associations of young adulthood (18-21 years) and adulthood (at enrolment) body mass index (BMI) and weight change with EC risk in the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium (E2C2)...

(1) Objective: In many Western countries, survival from vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) has been stagnating for decades or has increased insufficiently from a clinical perspective. In Italy, previous studies on cancer survival have not taken vulvar cancer into consideration or have pooled patients with vulvar and vaginal cancer. To bridge thi...

Background: Thyroid cancer incidence in France has increased rapidly in recent decades. Most of this increase has been attributed to overdiagnosis, the major consequence of which is overtreatment. We aimed to estimate the cost of thyroid cancer management in France and the corresponding cost proportion attributable to the treatment of overdiagnose...

Background: Endometrial cancer risk stratification may help target interventions, screening, or prophylactic hysterectomy to mitigate the rising burden of this cancer. However, existing prediction models have been developed in select cohorts and have not considered genetic factors. Methods: We developed endometrial cancer risk prediction models...

(1) Background: Liver cancer in Italy is characterised by one of the highest incidence rates worldwide outside of Asia coupled with comparatively favourable survival figures. The objective of this study was to evaluate the most recent epidemiologic trends of the disease. (2) Methods: Thirteen cancer registries covering a population of about 12,740,...

Background The EUROCARE-5 study revealed disparities in childhood cancer survival among European countries, giving rise to important initiatives across Europe to reduce the gap. Extending its representativeness through increased coverage of eastern European countries, the EUROCARE-6 study aimed to update survival progress across countries and years...

Objective: To describe the practice of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing over more than 20 years in Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG), North-Eastern Italy. Methods: A population-based, ecological study was conducted using information derived from regional administrative health-related databases. Data on PSA and prostate biopsies performed on res...

A multidisciplinary panel of experts and cancer patients developed a position paper to highlight recent evidence on "cancer cure" (ie, the possibility of achieving the same life expectancy as the general population) and discuss the consequences of this concept on follow-up and rehabilitation strategies. The aim is to inform clinicians, patients, an...

Sommario Il rischio di un secondo tumore, valutato in 38.535 pazienti con tumori tiroidei (TT) diagnosticati tra il 1998 e il 2012 in Italia, era 1,16 (+16%, rispetto alla popolazione generale) per tutti i tumori, per secondi tumori delle ossa/connettivo 2,0, mammella 1,2, prostata 1,4, reni 2,2 e emolinfopoietici 1,4 mentre non si è evidenziato al...

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system that affects the thyroid gland. It is usually treatable and, in most cases, curable. The central issues are how to improve knowledge on TC, to accurately identify cases at an early stage that can benefit from effective intervention, optimise therapy, and reduce the risk of ov...

The study by Colonna and colleagues in this issue describes many epidemiologic investigations that have provided estimates of cancer cure. Evidence of the possibility of cancer cure grows and lays the groundwork to encourage clinicians to update cancer care plans and long‐term follow‐up.

Background Ovarian cysts represent a common condition among women. Epidemiologic studies are inconsistent in determining if women with cysts are more likely to develop endometrial cancer (EC) regardless of overweight/obesity. We investigated the combined role of cysts and body mass index (BMI) on EC risk. Methods We pooled data from three case-con...

Objective: We analyzed the pooled case-control data from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium to compare cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption risk factors for head and neck cancer between less developed and more developed countries. Subjects and methods: The location of each study was categorized as eithe...

Background: We determined the relative contribution of decreased tumour thickness to the favourable trend in survival from cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in Italy. Methods: Eleven local cancer registries covering a population of 8 056 608 (13.4% of the Italian population in 2010) provided the records of primary CMM cases registered between 2...

Introduction: This study assesses the risk of infection and clinical outcomes in a large consecutive population of cancer and non-cancer patients tested for SARS-CoV-2 status. Methods: Study patients underwent SARS-CoV-2 molecular-testing between 22 February 2020 and 31 July 2020, and were found infected (CoV2+ve) or uninfected. History of malig...

Background: The incidence of thyroid disease is generally increasing, and it is subject to major geographic variability, between and within countries. Moreover, the incidence rates and the proportion of overdiagnosis for thyroid cancer in Italy are among the highest worldwide. This study aimed to estimate population-based frequency and trends of t...

Objectives: to update the Italian estimates of survival for patients with a paediatric cancer, tobacco smoke-associated cancers, and cancers targeted by screening; to assess geographical differences. Design: population-based descriptive study. Setting and participants: incident cancer cases diagnosed in 2010-2014, with follow-up to 2018, from...

Background Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a global health issue with severe implications on morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of HCV infection on all-cause, liver-related, and non-liver-related mortality in a population living in an area with a high prevalence of HCV infection before the advent of Direct...

Background France is among the countries showing fastest growth of thyroid cancer (TC) incidence and highest incidence rates in Europe. This study aimed to clarify the temporal and geographical variations of TC in France and to quantify the impact of overdiagnosis. Methods We obtained TC incidence data in 1986–2015, and mortality data in 1976–2015...

Background It is well established that cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 are at particularly elevated risk of adverse outcomes, but the comparison of SARS-CoV-2 infection risk between cancer patients and cancer-free individuals has been poorly investigated on a population-basis. Methods A population-based study was thus conducted in Friuli...

Background The number of patients living after a cancer diagnosis is increasing, especially after thyroid cancer (TC). This study aims at evaluating both the risk of a second primary cancer (SPC) in TC patients and the risk of TC as a SPC. Methods We analyzed two population-based cohorts of individuals with TC or other neoplasms diagnosed between...

Nowadays, evidence suggests that several cancer types are curable diseases and that some common cancers are cured in less than 10 years. This new reality, that is the recognition of cancer patients as “cured,” changes our understanding of cancer survivorship, since it has relevant clinical, economic, and social implications. Cancer survivor is defi...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronic infection causes progressive liver damage, although about 20% of patients develop extrahepatic manifestations such as cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV). Clinical manifestations range from mild to moderate (purpura, asthenia, arthralgia) to severe (leg ulcers, peripheral neuropathy, glomerulonephritis, non-Hodgkin lymp...

Abstract: Aims: The number of patients living after a cancer diagnosis is increasing, especially after thyroid cancer (TC). This study aims at evaluating both the risk of a second primary cancer (SPC) in TC patients and the risk of TC as a SPC. Methods: Two population-based cohorts of cancer patients aged up to 84 years were identified from 28 Ita...

Abstract: Objectives: Survival from cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) has increased for years in most western countries. So far, this has commonly been attributed to a trend towards lower Breslow tumour thickness. This study aimed to determine the relative role that the improvement in tumour thickness has played in the favourable trend in survival...

Objective To describe smoking behaviours of patients with incident cancer attending an Italian cancer centre and to examine changes in their smoking habits within 12 months from cancer diagnosis, evaluating determinants of smoking cessation. Methods A hospital-based prospective cohort included patients hospitalized in an Italian cancer centre (201...

Background The incidence of thyroid cancer has increased in different populations worldwide in the past 30 years. We present here an overview of international trends of thyroid cancer incidence by major histological subtypes. Methods We did a population-based study with data for thyroid cancer incidence collected by the International Agency for Re...

Several studies have suggested that hepatitis C virus (HCV) may be the causative agent of some B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphomas (B‐NHL). Several authors have demonstrated that pegylated interferon (Peg‐IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) can revert indolent low‐grade B‐NHL by inducing HCV eradication. Presently, the combination therapy (IFN plus RBV) has been ab...

Background There has been a considerable increase in thyroid cancer incidence among adults in several countries in the past three decades, attributed primarily to overdiagnosis. We aimed to assess global patterns and trends in incidence and mortality of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents, in view of the increased incidence among adults. Me...

Despite the considerable number of studies investigating the Mediterranean diet in prostate cancer (PCa) etiology, very few focused on cancer survival. We assessed the pre-diagnostic diet and physical activity in a cohort of 777 men with PCa diagnosed between 1995 and 2002 in north-eastern Italy; adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated th...

Adherence to Mediterranean diet has been consistently associated with a reduced mortality in the general population, but evidence for women with breast cancer is scanty. Methods: A cohort of 1453 women with breast cancer diagnosed between 1991 and 1994 in northern Italy was followed-up for vital status for 15 years after diagnosis. The pre-diagno...

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 wi...

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 wit...

Objective Limited information is available on the incidence of rare thyroid cancer (TC) subtypes: anaplastic (ATC) and medullary (MTC). The aim of this study was to describe incidence variations and trends across European countries of all TC subtypes. Materials and methods We used the RARECAREnet database including 80721 TC incident cases in the p...

Objectives: to describe the clinical and demographical characteristics of COVID-19 infected people in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (FVG, Northern Italy). Design: retrospective cohort study with an individual level record linkage procedure of different administrative databases. Setting and participants: the cohort included 3,010 patients re...

In Oceania, North America and north‐western Europe, after decades of increase, cutaneous malignant melanoma rates began to stabilise or decline before 2000. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the reversal of the incidence trend is extending to southern Europe. In order to obtain a formal confirmation, this nationwide study from Italy investigated the...

Alcohol is a well-established risk factor for head and neck cancer (HNC). This study aims to explore the effect of alcohol intensity and duration, as joint continuous exposures, on HNC risk. Data from 26 case-control studies in the INHANCE Consortium were used, including never and current drinkers who drunk ≤10 drinks/day for ≤54 years (24234 contr...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic virus that causes hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Twenty percent of HBV patients may develop extra-hepatic manifestations, such as polyarthritis nodosa, glomerulonephritis, dermatitis, poly-arthralgia and arthritis, and aplastic anemia. The association of HBV and cryoglobulinemic vasculit...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 70 million people worldwide. HCV is responsible for both hepatitis and extra-hepatic manifestations. Chronic infection has been shown to develop in about 70% of cases and can progress to cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Ten percent of HCV patients may develop extra-hepatic manifestations, includ...

e18574 Background: Increases of thyroid cancer (TC) incidence emerged in the last decades in several countries. This study aimed to estimate time trends of TC incidence in India and the proportion of TC cases potentially attributable to overdiagnosis by sex, age, and area. Methods: TC cases aged 0-74 years reported to Indian cancer registries durin...

Context/Objective Increases of thyroid cancer (TC) incidence emerged in the last decades in several countries. This study aimed to estimate time trends of TC incidence in India and the proportion of TC cases potentially attributable to overdiagnosis by sex, age, and area. Design TC cases aged 0-74 years reported to Indian cancer registries during...

Background: Tobacco use is a well-established risk factor for head and neck cancer (HNC). However, less is known about the potential impact of exposure to tobacco at an early age on HNC risk. Methods: We analyzed individual-level data on ever tobacco smokers from 27 case-control studies (17,146 HNC cases and 17,449 controls) in the International...

Introduction: This review aimed to classify major patterns of cancer cure and discuss clinical implications. Patterns of cancer cure were identified, in terms of long-term survival and life expectancy, by means of two recently estimated indicators: cure fraction (CF) and time to cure (TTC). Methods: We considered population-based studies reporti...

Purpose To conduct a pooled analysis assessing the association of blood transfusion with risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Methods We used harmonized data from 13 case–control studies (10,805 cases, 14,026 controls) in the InterLymph Consortium. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using unconditional logistic regre...

Objectives: This study aimed at re-evaluating the strength and shape of the dose-response relationship between the combined (or joint) effect of intensity and duration of cigarette smoking and the risk of head and neck cancer (HNC). We explored this issue considering bivariate spline models, where smoking intensity and duration were treated as int...

The aims of this study were to provide life expectancy (LE) estimates of cancer patients at diagnosis and LE changes over time since diagnosis to describe the impact of cancer during patients' entire lives. Cancer patients' LE was calculated by standard period life table methodology using the relative survival of Italian patients diagnosed in popul...

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...

Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV) can develop in 1.2–4% of hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐infected patients. HBV infection affects about 350 million people worldwide. It can progress from acute or fulminant hepatitis to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Twenty per cent of HBV patients may develop extra‐hepatic manifestations, such a...

Background: Incidence rates of thyroid cancer (TC) increased in the last decades worldwide. This study aimed to describe TC incidence in the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) region, to estimate the quota of overdiagnosis, and to investigate the impact of surgery on long-term survival after TC diagnosis. Methods: TC cases reported to the FVG populatio...

Objective To evaluate short-term (2003–2014) cancer incidence and mortality trends in Italy. Methods Italian Cancer Registries data, available in the AIRTUM database, from 17 out of 20 regions were used. The number of incident cases and deaths were estimated for those registries and those years with incomplete information. Age-standardized rates,...

Objective: To evaluate the trends of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality rates from 2003 to 2014 in Italy by age groups and regions. Methods: We used the data of 48 cancer registries from 17 Italian regions to estimate standardized incidence and mortality rates overall and by sex, age groups (<50, 50-69, 70+ years), and geographic ar...

Thyroid cancer incidence varies greatly between and within high‐income countries (HICs), and overdiagnosis likely plays a major role in these differences. Yet, little is known about the situation in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). We compare up‐to‐date thyroid cancer incidence and mortality at national and subnational levels. 599,851 thyr...

Introduction: The clinical and therapeutic management of mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) remains a subject of controversy. In addition, most studies have not recorded the long-term follow-up and the outcome of these cases. Material and methods: We enrolled 246 patients affected by MC who were consecutively admitted to our Department from January 199...

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 reg...

Objectives: To investigate the long-term effects and safety of new direct anti-viral agents (DAAs) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related mixed cryoglobulinaemia (MC) without renal involvement. Methods: The study enrolled 22 consecutive patients, 19 received sofosbuvir-based regimen and three patients received other DAAs, individually...

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). This study aims to provide estimates of complete cancer prev...

Cancer survival among people with AIDS (PWA) has been described in developed countries, but there is lack of data from developing countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate survival after cancer diagnosis in PWA and compare it with people without AIDS (non-PWA) in São Paulo, Brazil. A probabilistic record linkage was carried out between the d...

Due to lower female incidence, estimates of exogenous and endogenous hormonal factors in head and neck cancers (HNCs, comprising cancers of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, and larynx) among women have been inconsistent and unable to account for key HNC risk factors. We pooled data from 11 studies from Europe, North America, and Japan. Ana...

Table S1. Selected characteristics of studies included in the pooled analysis of hormone and reproductive related variables and head and neck cancer, INHANCE Consortium. Table S2. Demographic characteristics of head and neck cancer cases and controls, INHANCE Consortium. Table S3. Associations between hormone and reproductive variables and all he...

Background Previous studies have provided limited support to the association between tobacco smoking and lymphomas with weak evidence of a dose-response relationship. Methods We investigated the relationship between tobacco smoking and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphomas (HL) through logistic regression spline models. Data we...

The dietary inflammatory index TM (DII) has been shown to correlate with concentrations of several inflammatory markers and a variety of chronic disease endpoints, including cancers of various anatomic sites. We investigated whether the DII was associated with the risk for death among women with breast cancer (BrCa). This retrospective cohort study...

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major etiologic agent of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV). Interferon - therapy are associated with important side effects and may esacerbate vasculitis. Recently, about new-generation direct antiviral agents (DAA) in HCV-related CV, some reports have been published. Aim: The aim of this study is to verify...

Objective: To investigate the association between breastfeeding and endometrial cancer risk using pooled data from 17 studies participating in the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium. Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis with individual-level data from three cohort and 14 case-control studies. Study-specific odds ratios (ORs) and 95%...

Background: Incidence rates of thyroid cancer (TC) increased in several countries during the last 30 years, while mortality rates remained unchanged, raising important questions for treatment and follow-up of TC patients. This study updates population-based estimates of relative survival (RS) after TC diagnosis in Europe by sex, country, age, peri...

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 t...

Objectives: Despite the wide accessibility to free human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), late HIV diagnosis remains common with severe consequences at individual and population level. This study aimed to describe trends of late HIV testing and to identify their determinants in the late cART era in I...