Epidemiological Aspects in Nasopharyngeal Cancer

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is an uncommon cancer. According to the Global Cancer Observatory, of the 129,000 new diagnoses in 2018, 85% has been made in the Asiatic population. In males the annual age adjusted rate of incidence (per 100,000) dramatically varied between 8 in South-Eastern Asia and <1 in Europe. In Europe (period of diagnosis 1999–2007), the annual incidence rate varied between 0.7 (South of Europe) and 0.2 (North of Europe). Incidence is three time higher in men than women. Elderly are more affected than young people. Five-year survival, from European population based cancer registries was 49% (period 1999–2007), survival was better in younger than in older patients (73% vs. 31%), prognosis was more favorable in women than men (54% vs. 47%). Geographical variation of survival was reported, with poor 5-year in the Eastern European countries (36%).Incidence and population based survival are crucial for public health and planning clinical study. Lifestyle and environmental factors are responsible of the decreasing trend of incidence in quite all the world countries.Being one of the rare diseases, NPC need to be centralized for diagnosis and treatment. In Europe, the European Joint Action of Rare Cancers and the European Reference Network for rare disease will play an important role to make progress and reduce geographical disparities.

C-reactive protein level predicts mortality in COPD: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The prognostic role of baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is controversial. In order to clarify this issue, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the predictive effect of baseline CRP level in COPD patients. 15 eligible articles focusing on late mortality in COPD were included in our study. We performed a random-effects meta-analysis, and assessed heterogeneity and publication bias. We pooled hazard ratio (HR) estimates and their 95% confidence intervals on mortality for the comparison between the study-specific highest category of CRP levelversusthe lowest category. In overall analysis, elevated baseline CRP levels were significantly associated with higher mortality (HR 1.53, 95% CI 1.32–1.77,I2=68.7%, p<0.001). Similar results were observed across subgroups. However, higher mortality risk was reported in studies using a cut-off value of 3 mg·L−1(HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.12–2.30) and in those enrolling an Asiatic population (HR 3.51, 95% CI 1.69–7.31). Our analysis indicates that baseline high CRP level is significantly associated with higher late mortality in patients with COPD. Further prospective controlled studies are needed to confirm these data.

Mimumesa littoralis (Bondroit), M. oresterus (van Lith), and M. unicolor (Vander Linden): notes on similarity, synonymy, and identification (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Mimumesa oresterus (van Lith) was found to be less different from regional populations of M. unicolor (Vander Linden) than are regional populations of the closely related species M. littoralis (Bondroit) among themselves, and M. oresterus is therefore synonymized with M. unicolor. The East Asiatic population of M. littoralis is comparatively dissimilar to conspecific European and Central Asiatic populations morphometrically and in some details of male genitalia, and after additional studies it might be considered as a subspecies. An identification key with new structural and morphometric characters to distinguish M. littoralis and M. unicolor is presented.