title: [A monitoring system for occupational cancer].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Italian Occupation and Safety Act (d.lgs 626/94) provided for the establishment of a nationwide occupational cancer registry, under the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (ISPESL), with the aim of detecting cancer cases of occupational origin and estimating the influence of occupation in cancer causation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information on cancer cases, drawn from six Italian population-based cancer registries (CRs of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Genoa Town and Genoa Province, Macerata Town, Umbria Region, Varese Town, Veneto Region), and on a random sample of population controls selected in each CRs area were linked with data on subjects employed in private enterprises that have been available in electronic form since 1974 at the National Institute for Social Security (INPS). In this way, both for cases and controls, the occupational histories of past employment were collected. A population-based case-control study covering the period 1990-1998 was carried out with the aim of estimating occupational cancer risk in the private sector by site and economic category in each area. Since one of the major drawbacks of this approach is the difficulty in distinguishing true occupational hazards from incidental findings derived from multiple comparisons, an extensive research of occupational literature was carried out, independently of the study results, to compare our results with existing knowledge on occupational risks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pooled analysis of the most recent incidence data based on 36,379 cases and 29,572 controls was performed; 34 "statistically significant" associations were found for 11 economic categories. Using our literature review, 10 associations were supported by more than 5 publishedpapers, 14 by a number of papers between 1 and 5, and 10 associations had not been previously reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This system appears suitable for assessing existing occupational cancer risks and can eventually lead to detecting occupational hazards in many areas of Italy. The system can also provide a list of cases suitable for in-depth search for past occupational exposures.
authors.affiliation: UO Registro Tumori ed Epidemiologia Ambientale, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Milano. occam@istitutotumori.mi.it
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crosignani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nesti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Audisio
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amendola
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cavuto
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scaburri
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zambon
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nedoclan
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stracci
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pannelli
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miligi
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vercelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries