Influenza vaccine is safe and effective in healthy preschool children. However the favourable implications of vaccination on disease rate in subsequent years have to be evaluated.
See Article on Page 1566
1Cancer Epidemiology Unit and Cancer Registries of Vaud and Neuchâtel Institut universitaire de médecine sociale et préventive, CHUV-Falaises 1 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland 2Laboratory of Epidemiology Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’ Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milano, Italy 3Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria Università degli Studi di Milano Via Venezian 1, 20133 Milano, Italy Fax: (+41) 21 3230 303 E-mail: [email protected]
The relationship between fertility treatment and breast cancer was investigated in a multicentric case-control study conducted in Italy on 2569 women with incident, histologically confirmed breast cancer and 2588 control women admitted to hospitals for acute, non-neoplastic, non-hormonal or gynaecological conditions, unrelated to fertility problems. The odds ratio of breast cancer was 1.08 (95% confidence interval 0.8-1.5) in those reporting fertility treatment compared with those who did not receive fertility treatment. Similarly, the odds ratio was 0.60 for women with tubal occlusion, 0.99 for those reporting hormonal imbalances and 1.32 for other/unspecified reasons. There was no consistent pattern of risk according to age at treatment and time since treatment. Women reporting fertility treatment with drug use had an odds ratio of 1.43, while those who did not report drug therapy had an odds ratio of 0.85. None of these odds ratio estimates was significant. Likewise, there was no heterogeneity among strata of parity, menopausal status, education and family history of breast cancer. Thus, our study, while providing reassuring evidence on the relationship between fertility treatment and breast cancer risk, cannot exclude the possibility that the use of specific drugs may be related to breast carcinogenesis.
Based on mortality data from 93% of Italian municipalities, there was an over 50% excess total mortality in March and a 38% excess in April, corresponding to over 46,000 excess deaths in those two months - as compared to 28,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in March and April. No subsequent excess mortality was observed, and in June reported total deaths were 6.2% less than expected. In the first 6 months of 2020, an 11.1% excess mortality was observed in Italy, and an almost 50% excess in Lombardy, the most affected region. Timely monitoring of total mortality has relevant implications for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and controlling occupational and social exposures.
