Search

•This article analyses the production of marble beads and their role during the Copper Age in Tuscany (central Italy).•Marble beads have been discovered as grave goods in funerary contexts.•Experimental, traceological and typological analyses have revealed different production chains for marble beads.•The signs of wear testify to the long-term use of these artefacts.

Introduction The epidemiology of lung cancer is changing worldwide, with smoking being the key driver of lung cancer incidence and mortality. Our aim is to analyze the incidence, survival and mortality trends in Italy in the framework of the 2017 survey on smoking behavior in Italy.Methods AIRTUM 2017 reports on cancer survival and incidence; 2017 survey on smoking behavior in Italy.Results Men achieved progress in lung cancer control characterized by a decrease in incidence and mortality and an increase in survival. The decreasing use of tobacco in men (from 60% in the 1960s to 24% in 2017) was most likely responsible for the decreasing incidence and mortality. Women showed no progress: although survival improved slightly, the incidence and mortality were both on the rise. This was most likely due to the increasing smoking rates in women in the 1970s and 80s. Of major concern is the accelerated rise in the number of smoking women from 4.6 million in 2016 to 5.7 million in 2017 compared to the decrease observed in men (from 6.9 to 6 million).Conclusions The incidence and mortality trends in males clearly demonstrate that primary prevention is the most effective way to reduce lung cancer mortality. By contrast, a 24% increase in the prevalence of smoking among women in just 1 year is extremely worrying for the future, and calls for immediate action by targeted strategies to reduce tobacco consumption in women and avert the dreadful prospect of a lung cancer epidemic in Italy.

Objectives and Methods:Incidence, mortality and long–term survival from prostate cancer were examined in the Umbria region of Italy, for the period 1978–1994. Incidence rates were derived from an ad hoc survey carried out over the period 1978–1982 and from 1994 cancer registry records. The mortality over the period derived from data of the official publications and the survival rates, at 15 years, were calculated starting from the ad hoc survey incident cases.Results:In the Umbria region, over the period 1978–1994, crude incidence rates from prostate cancer increased from 31.2 to 81.9 per 100,000 and mortality rates from 22.7 to 31.9 per 100,000. The rates were from 30.5 to 61.2 for age–adjusted incidence while standardized mortality remained constant (from 22.6 to 22.7 per 100,000). Survival in Umbria, compared with rates from other European Cancer Registries, is low both at 5– and 10–year follow–up.Conclusion:The great incidence increase observed over the study period could depend on a lesser completeness achieved by the 1978–1982 ad hoc survey with respect to the 1994 cancer registry data and/or from the screening campaign carried out in a large part of the region in 1994. Different elements support these hypotheses. However the above hypotheses can be verified over the next years when further incidence and survival data from the cancer registry will be available.

In LTA mouse cells pR plasmid constitutively expresses itself resulting in protection against typical SOS inducers (UV, 4NQO) and in sensitization to different DNA-damaging agents (MNNG, cisDDP, BLM) and geneticin (G418). The pR sensitizing effect is specific to mammalian cells, since the plasmid can only protect prokaryotic cells against the damaging agents tested. The pR protecting effect requires the expression of both the uvpl1and uvp2 (mucAb)regions in bacteria as well as in mouse cells. The coordinated function of these regions could result in protection against typical SOS inducers through an SOS/SOS-like pathway. The sensitization conferred by pR plasmid depends mostly on the expression of the mucABgenes, a shown by the survival of mouse cells transfected with different pR::n5 mutants. In particlular, BLM and G418 survival data demonstrate that, inserted into the pR plasmid, the bleand neogenes of the Tn5 transposon express themselves. This was confirmed by the presence of Tn5 transcripts in untreated mouse cells. The comparison between the pR effects in bacterial and mouse cells shows that during evolution the repair pathways against UV damage are better conserved than those against other kinds of damage.

Objectives and Methods: Survival of 687 urinary bladder and 217 kidney cancer patients was investigated using incident cases registered in an ad hoc survey in the Umbria region for the period 1978–1982. Death certificate only cases were excluded. The follow-up was carried out through the General Nominative Register of Causes of Death and verified at the Registrar’s Offices of the various towns of the Region. Results:At 10 years about one third of all bladder cancer patients were still alive while for kidney cancer the rate was 0.41 for females and 0.26 for males. Observed survival rates, at 1 year time intervals, never differed significantly in the two sexes even if, for kidney cancer, both observed and relative survival rates were somewhat higher in females than in males and, for bladder cancer, higher in males than in females. From survival rates by age groups both observed and relative rates decreased with age in males. In females the trend was unsteady due to the low survival in the first age group (15–44 years) for the two sites and a lower rate for kidney cancers in the 55–64 years age group compared to the next age groups. This trend was also probably due to the small number of cases. Conclusions:Comparison of survivals in Umbria with those of European registries shows higher rates for bladder cancer in both sexes and for kidney cancer in females in Umbria, while the value for kidney cancer survival in males was intermediate.

Leukemia cells from a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were found to bind sheep RBC (SRBC) through their monoclonal surface IgM. A lymphoblastoid cell line was obtained by immortalization of leukemic cells with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Cultured leukemic cells were found to have a supernumerary chromosome 12, an abnormality typical of CLL of the B cell type. To our knowledge, this is the first EBV-immortalized cell line from B-CLL cells of known SRBC specificity and the third reported CLL cell line carrying trisomy of chromosome 12.

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) patients show variable degrees of immunodeficiency and a higher than normal predisposition to lymphoid malignancies. AT cells are characterized by spontaneous chromosome instability resulting in chromosome breakage and in non random chromosome rearrangements. Sequential cytogenetic studies on T-lymphocytes from an AT patient showed the progressive development of a clone bearing a tandem translocation t(14;14)(q11;q32). The abnormal clone had spontaneous chromosome rearrangements. Compared to non clonal cells, the abnormal clone displayed a higher frequency of spontaneous chromosome rearrangements. In only the clonal cells we observed two particular and predominant rearrangements: isodicentric chromosomes and telomeric associations which may derive from faulty recombination. Chromosome instability induced by the etoposide VP16, a DNA topoisomerase II inhibitor, was evaluated in terms of chromosome breakage and SCE frequency. T-lymphocytes from the AT patient showed hypersensitivity to VP16 significantly higher than normal T-lymphocytes. The chromosome instability induced by VP16 is significantly higher in clonal than in non clonal cells, whilst the chromosome instability induced by the radiomimetic drug bleomycin is not significantly different in the two AT lymphocyte subpopulations. The different spontaneous chromosome instability in clonal and non clonal cells together with their different behavior after treatment with only VP16, suggest that clonal cells bearing the tandem translocation could have increased faulty recombination. Given the presence of translocations t(14;14)(q11;q32) in T-prolymphocytic leukemias and T-cell tumors of non AT patients, our findings suggest that VP16 could be considered an antineoplastic treatment particularly indicated in these patients.

We analyzed the 10-year survival of 1,512 women with breast cancer in relation to age at diagnosis. The incident cases were from an ad hoc investigation in Umbria, a region of central Italy, for the period 1978-1982. The follow-up was carried out by an automatic link with the RENCAM (Nominative register of causes of death) and verified at the Registrar's Offices of the various towns of the region. Observed survival at 1 year was 0.89, at 3 years 0.75, at 5 years 0.64 and at 10 years 0.47. Median survival was 9.0 years. Relative survival at 1, 3, 5, 10 years was respectively 0.91, 0.79, 0.71 and 0.59. Women <35 years of age had a better prognosis both at 5 (0.83) and 10 years (0.69) from diagnosis. Thereafter, survival decreased with increasing age. The exception to this trend was women in the 45-49 and 60-64 year age ranges, for which survival was greater than the previous age range classes by 6% and 13%, respectively, at 5 years from diagnosis and 6% and 14% at 10 years. Comparison of data from Umbria and Italian and European Registries shows that the prognosis for Umbrian women with breast cancer is quite good.