We have (1) estimated the incidence of desmoid tumor (DT) in the Finnish population, and (2) defined statistically four major age components of the DT with different biological properties. The incidence of the DT, based on admissions to four separate hospitals and on the number of pathological biopsy specimens analyzed at the Central Pathological Laboratory of Helsinki University, is 2.4-4.3 new cases per 10(6) inhabitants per annum. Statistical analysis demonstrated four major age components where the site of the tumor and/or sex of the patient were non-randomly distributed: "juvenile" DT, a predominantly extra-abdominal desmoid tumor of the female sex; "fertile" DT, a nearly exclusively abdominal DT of fertile females; "menopausal" DT, a predominantly abdominal tumor where the sex ratio approaches one:one; and "senescent" DT, where abdominal and extra-abdominal varieties are equally frequently encountered and where the sex ratio of the affected patients is one:one.

The association between serum alpha-tocopherol levels and the subsequent incidence of cancer was investigated in a longitudinal study of 21,172 men initially aged 15-99 years in six geographic areas in Finland. The baseline examination was conducted in 1968-1972, and during the follow-up of 6-10 years, 453 cancers were diagnosed. The serum alpha-tocopherol levels were measured from stored serum samples from these men and from 841 male controls, matched for municipality and age, who did not develop cancer during the follow-up. The mean levels of serum alpha-tocopherol among the cancer cases and controls were 8.02 and 8.28 mg/liter, respectively. A high serum alpha-tocopherol level was associated with a reduced risk of cancer. The relative risk of cancer in persons in the two highest (threshold 8.70 mg/liter) quintiles of serum alpha-tocopherol was 0.64 (95 per cent confidence interval = 0.49-0.85) in comparison with those in the three lowest quintiles. The association was strongest for the combined group of cancers unrelated to smoking and varied between subgroups of the study population as well as between different cancers. The association persisted when adjusted for serum cholesterol, serum vitamin A, serum selenium, and various confounding factors. It also persisted when subjects with possible signs of cancer at the time when the blood samples were drawn or with cancers diagnosed during the first two years of follow-up were excluded. These findings agree with the hypothesis that high vitamin E intake protects against cancer.

Fifty‐one cases of Hodgkin's disease, of lymphocytic predominance type, nodular subtype (HDLPN) were singled out from three sources: lymph nodes originally diagnosed as malignant lymphoma, nodes suspected of lymphoma and nodes suspected of toxoplasmosis. Two thirds of the 51 patients were men, and the median age was 42 years. The disease was characteristically unilocular and cervical and axillary nodes were most often involved. Local recurrences were common (in 13 cases). Oncological treatment (irradiation, cytostatics, or both) was given to 20 patients, whereas 31 patients remained untreated as the original histological diagnosis was not malignant. Despite the lack of treatment, the prognosis was good. Relative actuarial survival for the whole material was 93% at five years and 80% at ten years. During follow‐up, five patients developed a diffuse large–celled non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma 4–11 years after the onset of HDLPN. The majority of the subsequent lymphomas cannot be therapy‐induced as only one of these patients had previously been treated (irradiated). Transition to other types of Hodgkin's disease was observed only in two cases. It is concluded that HDLPN is a clinicopathological entity with a good prognosis, but that it may sometimes change into a more malignant lymphoma of the Hodgkin's or non‐Hodgkin's type.

0.. Normann, T. & Ringertz, N. Observer variation in histologic classification of thyroid cancer. Acta path. microbiol. scand. Sect. A. 86: 483-486. 1978.Histologic slides of 696 cases of thyroid cancer reported to the national cancer registries of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were reviewed by 5 Nordic pathologists in order to determine the observer variation between the pathologists, as well as the reproducibility of the WHO classification of thyroid tumours. In 58% of the cases all observers agreed upon the diagnosis and in 82% at least three of them agreed. The observer disagreement was lowest for papillary carcinoma (7 % ) and highest for follicular carcinoma (27 %). The corresponding figures for anaplastic and medullary carcinomas were I8 % and 23 % , respectively. The most common diverging diagnosis for cases finally interpreted as papillary carcinoma was follicular carcinoma. and for cases finally interpreted as follicular carcinoma, a benign thyroid lesion. The results of the present study clearly indicate the necessity of having all cases reviewed by the same pathologist or group of pathologists in order to obtain reliable results for comparative studies.