1,720,962 research outputs found
Cancer incidence in people with AIDS in Italy
No full textPeople with HIV/AIDS (PWHA) have increased risk of some cancers. The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) has improved their life expectancy, exposing them to the combined consequences of aging and of a prolonged exposure to cancer risk factors. The aim of this study was to estimate incidence rates (IR) in PWHA in Italy, before and after the introduction of HAART, after adjusting for sex and age through direct standardization. An anonymous record linkage between Italian AIDS Registry (21,951 cases) and Cancer Registries (17.3 million, 30% of Italian population) was performed. In PWHA, crude IR, sex- and age-standardized IR and age-specific IR were estimated. The standardized IR for Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma greatly declined in the HAART period. Although the crude IR for all non-AIDS-defining cancers increased in the HAART period, standardized IR did not significantly differ in the 2 periods (352 and 379/100,000, respectively). Increases were seen only for cancer of the liver (IR ratio = 4.6, 95% CI: 1.3-17.0) and lung (IR ratio = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.0-3.2). Age-specific IRs for liver and lung cancers, however, largely overlapped in the 2 periods pointing to the strong influence of the shift in the age distribution of PWHA on the observed upward trends. In conclusion, standardized IRs for non-AIDS-defining cancers have not risen in the HAART period, even if crude IRs of these cancers increased. This scenario calls, however, for the intensification of cancer-prevention strategies, notably smoking cessation and screening programs, in middle-aged HIV-patients
Cancer incidence in people with AIDS in Italy
No full textPeople with HIV/AIDS (PWHA) have increased risk of some cancers. The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) has improved their life expectancy, exposing them to the combined consequences of aging and of a prolonged exposure to cancer risk factors. The aim of this study was to estimate incidence rates (IR) in PWHA in Italy, before and after
the introduction of HAART, after adjusting for sex and age through direct standardization. An anonymous record linkage
between Italian AIDS Registry (21,951 cases) and Cancer Registries (17.3 million, 30% of Italian population) was performed.
In PWHA, crude IR, sex- and age-standardized IR and age-specific IR were estimated. The standardized IR for Kaposi sarcoma
and non-Hodgkin lymphoma greatly declined in the HAART period. Although the crude IR for all non-AIDS-defining cancers
increased in the HAART period, standardized IR did not significantly differ in the 2 periods (352 and 379/100,000, respectively). Increases were seen only for cancer of the liver (IR ratio 5 4.6, 95% CI: 1.3–17.0) and lung (IR ratio 5 1.8, 95% CI: 1.0–3.2). Age-specific IRs for liver and lung cancers, however, largely overlapped in the 2 periods pointing to the strong
influence of the shift in the age distribution of PWHA on the observed upward trends. In conclusion, standardized IRs for non-
AIDS-defining cancers have not risen in the HAART period, even if crude IRs of these cancers increased. This scenario calls,
however, for the intensification of cancer-prevention strategies, notably smoking cessation and screening programs, in middle-aged HIV-patients
Survival after cancer in Italian persons with AIDS, 1986-2005: A population-based estimation.
No full textBACKGROUND:
Cancer survival in persons with AIDS (PWA) after introduction of antiretroviral therapies remains poorly characterized. The aim is to provide population-based estimates of cancer survival, overall and for the most important cancer types in PWA, and a comparison with persons without AIDS (non-PWA) affected by the same cancers.
METHODS:
PWA with cancer at AIDS or thereafter were individually matched with non-PWA by type of cancer, sex, age, year of diagnosis, area of living and, for lymphomas, histological subtype. Five-year observed survival and hazard ratios (HRs) of death in PWA versus non-PWA with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated.
RESULTS:
We included 2262 Italian PWA and 4602 non-PWA with cancer diagnosed during 1986-2005. Between 1986-1995 and 1996-2005, 5-year survival for all cancers in PWA improved from 12% to 41% and the corresponding HR versus non-PWA decreased from 5.1 (95% CI: 4.3-6.1) to 2.9 (95% CI: 2.6-3.3). In 1996-2005, HRs were 2.0 (95% CI: 1.4-2.9) for Kaposi sarcoma; 3.4 (2.9-4.1) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma; 2.4 (1.4-4.0) for cervical cancer. HRs were 2.5 (2.1-3.1) for all non-AIDS-defining cancers; 5.9 (3.1-11.2) for Hodgkin lymphoma; and 7.3 (2.8-19.2) for non-melanoma skin. A ≤3-fold survival difference was found for cancer of the stomach, liver, anus, lung, brain and the most aggressive lymphoma subtypes.
CONCLUSION(S):
The persisting, although narrowing, gap in cancer survival between PWA and non-PWA indicates the necessity of enhancing therapeutic approaches, so that PWA will be provided the same chances of survival observed in the general population, and improving cancer prevention and screening
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Cancer incidence in people with AIDS in Italy
No full textLo studio è stato condotto in collaborazione con medici, epidemiologi e ricercatori in tutta Italia che sono entrati a far parte del Cancer and AIDS Registries Linkage Study. Tale stuudio ha prodotto una pubblicazione a stampa in cui compare tra gli autori la dr Rosa Maria Limina, di questa Università, che ha inserito questo prodotto con il codice 31053 nella tipologia Articolo su Rivista
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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