Document 3004
 DOCN  M94A3004
 TI    Under-reporting of AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and
       non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL).
 DT    9412
 AU    Serraino D; Franceschi S; Dal Maso L; Rezza G; Vaccher E; Tirelli U;
       Division of Epidemiology, Aviano Cancer Centre, Italy.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):175 (abstract no. PB0127). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94369571
 AB    OBJECTIVE: Since AIDS surveillance data tend to underestimate the
       prevalence of AIDS-associated KS and NHL, this study was aimed at
       quantifing the degree of under-reporting of such neoplasms in the
       Italian AIDS surveillance scheme (RAIDS). METHODS: A linkage study
       between the Italian Cooperative Group on AIDS-related Tumours (GICAT, a
       voluntary reporting system for HIV-infected patients who develop cancer)
       and the mandatory notifications of AIDS cases to the RAIDS was carried
       out. Thus, 288 cases of AIDS-associated KS and 258 cases of NHL
       fulfilling the AIDS definition criteria were matched with the totality
       of 16,860 AIDS cases reported to the RAIDS up to March 1993. RESULTS:
       28% of the 288 diagnoses of AIDS-associated KS made by the GICAT centres
       were not reported to the RAIDS (4% because of lack of case notification;
       17% due to lack of follow-up information and 7% because of lack of
       neoplastic diagnosis reporting). As concerns the 258 NHL, 40% of these
       neoplasms did not appear among the clinical manifestations of AIDS (7%
       due to lack of case notification; 24% because of lack of follow-up
       information and 9% because of lack of neoplastic diagnosis reporting).
       DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the prevalence
       of AIDS-associated KS and NHL is substantially underestimated by AIDS
       surveillance data and that their impact on morbidity and mortality rates
       of AIDS cases is much higher than previously reported. The validation of
       AIDS surveillance data with other sources of oncological information is
       of crucial importance to better estimate the burden of AIDS-related
       tumours and to study the interaction between HIV infection and cancer.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*EPIDEMIOLOGY  Bias (Epidemiology)
       Comorbidity  Cross-Sectional Studies  Female  Human  Incidence
       Italy/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Lymphoma, AIDS-Related/*EPIDEMIOLOGY  Male
       *Population Surveillance  Sarcoma, Kaposi's/*EPIDEMIOLOGY  Skin
       Neoplasms/*EPIDEMIOLOGY  MEETING ABSTRACT

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