title: Foreign children with cancer in Italy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There has been a noticeable annual increase in the number of children coming to Italy for medical treatment, just like it has happened in the rest of the European Union. In Italy, the assistance to children suffering from cancer is assured by the current network of 54 centres members of the Italian Association of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (AIEOP), which has kept records of all demographic and clinical data in the database of Mod.1.01 Registry since 1989.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the information stored in the already mentioned database to assess the impact of immigration of foreign children with cancer on centres' activity, with the scope of drawing a map of the assistance to these cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 14,738 cases recorded by all centres in the period from 1999 to 2008, 92.2% were born and resident in Italy, 4.1% (608) were born abroad and living abroad and 3.7% (538) were born abroad and living in Italy. Foreign children cases have increased over the years from 2.5% in 1999 to. 8.1% in 2008.Most immigrant children came from Europe (65.7%), whereas patients who came from America, Asia and Oceania amounted to 13.2%, 10.1%, 0.2%, respectively. The immigrant survival rate was lower compared to that of children who were born in Italy. This is especially true for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients entered an AIEOP protocol, who showed a 10-years survival rate of 71.0% vs. 80.7% (p < 0.001) for immigrants and patients born in Italy, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children and adolescents are an increasingly important part of the immigration phenomenon, which occurs in many parts of the world. In Italy the vast majority of children affected by malignancies are treated in AIEOP centres. Since immigrant children are predominantly treated in northern Italy, these centres have developed a special expertise in treating immigrant patients, which is certainly very useful for the entire AIEOP network.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Oncology-Haematology Lalla Seràgnoli, Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy. roberto.rondelli@aosp.bo.it
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rondelli
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dini
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Rosa
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quarello
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bisogno
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aricò
authors.forename: Carivaldo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tamaro
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Casazza
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zecca
authors.forename: Clementina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Laurentis
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Porta
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pession
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000349:Africa / Q000208:ethnology; D001208:Asia / Q000208:ethnology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005061:Europe, Eastern / Q000208:ethnology; D005062:European Union / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality; D009656:North America / Q000208:ethnology; D044349:Oceania / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013020:South America / Q000208:ethnology; D015996:Survival Rate