title: Incident cases of primary liver cancer (PLC): proposal for the use of a standardised method in case-definition.
abstract: We defined some standardised criteria for classifying incident cases of liver cancer into either Primary Liver Cancer (PLC) or Unspecified Liver Cancer (ULC), on the basis of the diagnostic procedures performed. A pilot hospital-based study (98 cases) was carried out in Verona, northern Italy, in order to assess the feasibility of the method. The same protocol was subsequently applied in a population-based study (349 cases) in Bresica, northern Italy. The percentage of cases with histological verification was 38.7 and 41.8%, respectively, with a wide variation among different hospitals. The percentage of cases we attributed to the PLC category was 78.6% in the hospital-based study and 78.8% in the population-based study. No differences in the proportion of cases attributed to PLC were found according to patients' age, sex or hospital of admission. Repeatability of the method was assessed through a cross-panel review of 198 cases, with a 91.9% interobserver agreement. Implications of this method are discussed and some suggestions for cancer registration and future research are proposed.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Anatomia Patologica, Università di Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodella
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chiesa
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Picoco
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fiore Donati
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nardi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects