Longitudinal study of alexithymia and multiple sclerosis

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the course of alexithymia and its relation with anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), over a period of 5 years. Methods Sixty-two MS patients were examined at two timepoints, 5 years apart, and they answered questionnaires collecting socio-demographic, medical, and psychological data (depression, anxiety, alexithymia). Results Our data show that emotional disorders remain stable over time in patients with MS, particularly as regards alexithymia and anxiety. Conversely, the rate of depression decreased between the two evaluations, falling from 40% to 26%. The two dimensions of alexithymia (i.e., difficulty describi…

Conditional net survival: Relevant prognostic information for colorectal cancer survivors. A French population-based study

Abstract Background Traditionally, survival estimates have been reported as survival from the time of diagnosis. A patient's probability of survival changes according to time elapsed since the diagnosis and this is known as conditional survival. The aim was to estimate 5-year net conditional survival in patients with colorectal cancer in a well-defined French population at yearly intervals up to 5 years. Methods Our study included 18,300 colorectal cancers diagnosed between 1976 and 2008 and registered in the population-based digestive cancer registry of Burgundy (France). We calculated conditional 5-year net survival, using the Pohar Perme estimator, for every additional year survived afte…

Étude longitudinale sur 5 ans de la qualité de vie subjective de patients atteints de sclérose en plaques

Long-term Net Survival in Patients With Colorectal Cancer in France

Net survival, the survival that might occur if cancer was the only cause of death, is a major epidemiological indicator. Recent findings have shown that the classical methods used for the estimation of net survival from cancer registry data, referred as to "relative-survival methods," provided biased estimates.The aim of this study was to provide, for the first time, long-term net survival rates for colorectal cancer by using a population-based digestive cancer registry.This study is a population-based cancer registry analysis. The recently proposed unbiased nonparametric Pohar-Perme estimator was used.Overall, 14,715 colorectal cancers diagnosed between 1976 and 2005 and registered in the …

Improvement in survival of metastatic colorectal cancer: Are the benefits of clinical trials reproduced in population-based studies?

To describe trends in survival of non-resectable metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) over a 34-year period in a French population-based registry taking into account major advances in medical therapy.3804 patients with non-resectable metastatic colorectal cancer diagnosed between 1976 and 2009 were included. Three periods (1976-96, 1997-2004 and 2005-09) were considered.The proportion of patients receiving chemotherapy dramatically increased from 19% to 57% between the first two periods, then increased steadily thereafter reaching 59% during the last period (p0.001). Median relative survival increased from 5.9 months during the 1976-96 period to 10.2 months during the 1997-2004 period but, d…

Incidence and patterns of late recurrences in colon cancer patients

Long-term recurrences of colon cancer raised questions about the possible benefit of prolonging the recommended active 5-year surveillance. The aim of this study was to determine, for the first time, the incidence and patterns of late 10-year recurrence following curative resection of colon cancer. Data were obtained from two French digestive cancer registries. A total of 3,622 patients under 85 years resected for cure for colon cancer diagnosed between 1985 and 2000 were included. Information regarding recurrences was actively collected. Cumulative failure rates at 10 years were estimated using Kaplan-Meier estimates corrected by cause-specific hazards, and multivariable analysis was perfo…