1,721,201 research outputs found
Liver cancer in European children, 1978-1997. Report from the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System project.
No full textAbstract
Data on 849 children diagnosed with malignant hepatic tumours (International Classification of Childhood Cancer, Group VII) before the age of 15 years during 1978-1997 in Europe were extracted from the ACCIS database. Age-standardised incidence during 1988-1997 was 1.5 per million overall, 1.2 per million for hepatoblastoma and 0.2 per million for hepatic carcinoma. Over 90% of cases of hepatoblastoma occurred before age 5 years, whereas hepatic carcinoma had a fairly flat age distribution. Both tumours had an incidence in boys of 1.5-1.6 times that in girls. There were no significant time trends in incidence during 1978-1997. Five-year survival from hepatoblastoma diagnosed during 1988-1997 was 63% overall, and ranged from 52% in Eastern Europe to 84% in the North. Survival from hepatic carcinoma was much lower (37%). Between 1978-1982 and 1993-1997, 5-year survival (95% confidence interval (95% CI)) increased from 28% (95% CI 18-39) to 66% (95% CI 55-74) for hepatoblastoma and from 17% (95% CI 6-33) to 50% (95% CI 26-70) for hepatic carcinoma. These increases reflect the impact of advances in treatment of childhood liver cancer at a population level
Challenges in drug prescribing for children with cancer
No full textPaediatric oncology has achieved high cure rates despite the limited availability of drugs that have been specifically studied for use in children with cancer. Efficacy of these drugs has received more attention than their safety, but permanent side-effects in growing children need to be considered. An absence of pharmacokinetic data, dose-defining studies, schedules defined by age, and appropriate formulations can lead to underdosing or overdosing in specific age groups, resulting in a potential lack of benefit, development of resistance, and increased adverse drug reactions. These major clinical concerns have promoted initiatives in Europe since 2003 regarding the need for a Paediatric Regulation, aimed at improving the risk-benefit ratio of such drugs in children and providing the legal framework to overcome the limitations of the past. However, to undertake the appropriate studies of these drugs in this setting, financial support is essential. Europe is now showing its commitment to overcome the present difficulties of drug prescribing for children with cancer by introducing measures that will encourage new public-private partnerships. All those involved, including researchers, paediatric oncologists, learned societies, regulatory agencies, national agencies, and pharmaceutical companies, need to become more familiar with the opportunities opened up by the new regulation, which is aimed at providing an increased cooperation between researchers and drug developers for the benefit of children
Cancer in children and adolescents in Europe: Developments over 20 years and future challenges.
No full textAbstract
This special issue contains 18 articles describing population-based analyses of incidence and survival for cancer among children and adolescents in Europe over the period 1978-1997. The analyses were derived from the large database of the ACCIS project (Automated Childhood Cancer Information System), which was built through collaboration of 62 population-based cancer registries in 19 European countries. Data on 88,465 cancers in children and 15,369 in adolescents (age 15-19 yrs) were included in the various analyses, making this the largest database on cancer in these age-groups in the world. National data were grouped into five European regions to allow comparisons of incidence and survival, for all cancers and by tumour type, including analysis of trends in both over time. This overview paper focuses on the comparability of the data from multiple registries and describes the potential confounding factors. Age-standardised annual incidence rates of many, but not all, cancers in children and adolescents are clearly rising. There are geographical differences in survival for the majority of tumour types. Survival rates increased for nearly all types of cancer in children and adolescents. The implications of these findings for aetiological factors and treatment delivery for cancer in children and adolescents are discussed
Malignant renal tumours incidence and survival in European children (1978-1997): Report from the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System project.
No full textAbstract
More than 5000 cases of malignant renal tumour diagnosed in children under the age of 15 years during the period 1978-1997 in Europe, were extracted from the database of the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System (ACCIS). In 1988-1997 the age-standardised incidence rate of childhood renal tumours in Europe was 8.8 per million, with significant differences between regions. Wilms' tumour (WT, M-8960) accounted for 93% of renal tumours and about 7% were bilateral. The incidence rates of WT increased over the 20 years, by 0.7% per year. European 5-year survival for children diagnosed with WT in 1988-1997 was 85%, ranging from 73% in the East to 91% in the North. Patients in the age group 0-3 years at diagnosis had a more favourable prognosis (5-year survival 87%) than those diagnosed later (81%), P<0.0001. Patients with unilateral WT (n=2085) had better 5-year survival (85%) than 154 patients with bilateral tumours (76%), P=0.003. Five-year survival for 64 patients with clear cell sarcoma of kidney was 68%, for 43 patients with rhabdoid tumour of kidney it was 23%, and for 56 patients with renal cell carcinoma it was 87%. For combined European data, 5-year survival for WT increased from 73% in 1978-1982 to 87% in 1993-1997 and the increase was significant in three out of five regions (East, North and West). Further development and exploitation of the ACCIS database will benefit clinical management and aetiological studies
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
DNA methylation analysis of the evolution of Wilms tumour from its precursor nephrogenic rests
Get PDFRecurrent loss of imprinting at 11p15, paucity of recurrent genetic mutations and associated nephrogenic rests (NR; precursor lesions that resemble embryonic kidney (EK)) implicate aberrant DNA methylation in tumourigenesis of paediatric Wilms tumour (WT) and predict that interrogation of the methylome, rather than the genome, is more likely to reveal tumour-specific biomarkers To test if aberrant DNA methylation is implicated in tumourigenesis, methylome analysis was performed on 36 normal kidney (NK), 22 NR, 36 WT and 4 EK, including 20 matched trios and 34 matched NK-WT pairs, using Illumina 450k arrays. Findings were validated with bisulfite-sequencing and RNA sequencing. This thesis describes the successful identification of changes in methylation that distinguish between tissue types. Through analysis of DNA methylation, NR formation was associated with gain of methylation at developmental loci related to Polycomb target binding sites. Evolution to WT was associated with increase in methylation variability in a subset of WTs (group-1), which also showed common changes in methylation in comparison to their associated NR, including silencing of novel tumour suppressor genes. Group-1 WTs were significantly enriched for bilateral cases whereas those in group-2 showed no differences in methylation compared to their associated NR. Comparison between NK and WT identified three DMRs of genome-wide significance (P<5x10-8) for use as tumour-specific biomarkers. As proof of principle for clinical utility, DMR-2 was successfully used in a case study to monitor tumour burden during treatment in cell-free serum DNA. This thesis concludes that methylation levels vary during WT evolution. As group-1 WT included all bilateral cases, our data suggests that methylation analysis could aid treatment planning in bilateral disease and that some WT may be candidates for epigenetic-modifier therapy. These findings define the first cell-free epigenetic biomarker for WT with potential for clinical utility
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
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