Background: Although the diagnostic criteria and pathogenesis of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) have recently been elucidated, knowledge of the epidemiology of this malignancy is still limited. This study examined the incidence of GIST in the province of Modena, including pathologic features and clinical outcome.

; the registry staff routinely visited all hospitals and pathological laboratories in eastern Libya (1.6 million inhabitants) and collected information from all death registration offices. A huge archive of prevalent cases was established before the 2003 data were collected. A total of 997 cases of primary cancers were registered among residents in 2003. The world age-standardized incidence rate for all sites combined (except nonmelanoma skin) was 118 per 100,000 for men and 95 per 100,000 for women. The most frequently diagnosed malignancies in males were lung cancer (19%) and colorectal cancer (10%), followed by cancers of the head and neck (9%) and bladder (9%). Among females, they were breast cancer (26%), cancer of the colon and rectum (9%), uterus (7%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (5%). Our study provides data on cancer incidence in eastern Libya, and confirms that cancer incidence is much lower than in western countries. Moreover, observed patterns indicate that the incidence of many cancers, including those of the lung, breast, colon, rectum and bladder is quite different from previous estimates based on the data available from the neighboring countries. ' 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: Benghazi; cancer; incidence; Libya; population-based registry Cancer will become an increasingly important health problem in developing countries in the coming decades. Growing and ageing populations, increasing tobacco consumption and exposure to other known risk factors (e.g., industrialization and westernization of diet and lifestyle) will all contribute to dramatically increase the number of new cancer cases, especially in African countries. 1,2 The establishment of several new cancer registries in Africa in the last 15 years 3-8 will provide more accurate statistics and help to improve both the monitoring of cancer trends over time and our understanding of this growing epidemic. Although cancer registration activity in Africa is growing rapidly, until now no cancer incidence data have been available for a defined population within Libya. 7,[9][10][11] In this paper, we report for the first time the statistics on cancer incidence from the population-based Benghazi Cancer Registry (BCR), which was established in 2002 under the auspices of the National Research Center and located in Garyounis University, in eastern Libya. Material and methodsThe BCR covers a wide area of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean Sea coast (Fig. 1). The total population, according to 2003 estimates, is 1,632,051 (approximately 28% of the total Libyan population), with a high proportion of children (age 0-14: 35%) and young adults (age 15-29: 32%), while people older than 65 years only account for less than 5% (Fig. 2). The city of Benghazi (660,147 estimated population) is the major center of the region.Cases were found by active searching in all hospitals in which cancer may be diagnosed. The Department of Pathology of Garyounis University, located in the city of Benghazi, is the most important source of information because it provides his...

We conducted a population-based study of peripheral lymphomas (PL) that had been diagnosed between 1997 and 2003 in the province of Modena, Italy, with the aim of providing updated incidence, clinical and survival data for these cancers. We evaluated the incidence patterns and time trends of 1582 cases of PL that had been reclassified according to the WHO classification of hematological malignancies. Data regarding clinical characteristics, treatment and outcome were also collected for each case. The World Age-Standardized Rate (ASR) was calculated as 13.4, 2.2 and 3.4 per 100,000 people for B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), T-cell NHL and Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL), respectively, with an increase of 1.62% per year during the study period. The lymphoma subtype showing the highest incidence was found to be diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with an ASR of 4.8. Compared with reports from other western countries, our series is characterized by a higher incidence of HL and indolent B-NHL in general, and of CLL/SLL (ASR = 3.3) and marginal zone NHL (ASR = 1.5), in particular, and also by a lower incidence of FL (ASR = 2). After a median follow-up of 54 months, the 5-year relative survival for the whole series was found to be 70% with a statistically significant improvement for cases diagnosed during 2002-2003 (from 66 to 74%; p = 0.03). Survival improvement within the study period was also evident for patients with DLBCL, HL and T-NHL. Our study provides a comprehensive description of both the epidemiological and clinical features of PL cases in Modena and our data also reflect the major advances in the curability of some histological subtypes of this disease. The usefulness of a population-based approach to better characterizing different lymphoma subtypes is also demonstrated.

This population-based study provides new insights into recent changes in the epidemiology of EN-MZL, mainly represented by the sharp reduced incidence of HP-positive g-MALT lymphomas.

Bidirectional risk of endometrial cancer was not exclusively related to tamoxifen use.