Background:Cancer is the second most common cause of death in children in the developed world. The study investigated patterns and trends in survival from childhood cancer in patients from northern England diagnosed 1968–2005.Methods:Five-year survival was analysed using Kaplan–Meier estimation for four successive time periods. Cox regression analysis was used to explore associations with age and demographic factors.Results:The study included 2958 cases (1659 males and 1299 females). Five-year survival for all cancers improved significantly from 39% in 1968–1977 to 79% in 1998–2005 (P<0.001). Five-year survival for leukaemia increased from 24% to 81% (P<0.001), lymphoma from 46% to 87% (P<0.001), central nervous system tumours from 43% to 73% (P<0.001), bone tumours from 21% to 75% (P<0.001), soft tissue sarcoma from 30% to 58% (P<0.001) and germ cell tumours from 59% to 97% (P<0.001). Survival was worse for cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (P<0.001) and astrocytoma (P<0.001) aged 10–14 years compared with 0–4-year olds.Conclusion:There were marked improvements in survival over a 38-year time span. Future work should examine factors that could influence further improvement in survival such as diagnosis delays.

Utilidad de la anamnesis y de las técnicas inmunológicas en el diagnóstico de la anisakidosis en pacientes con abdomen agudo A. del RESUMENIntroducción: Anisakis simplex puede producir síntomas digestivos y alérgicos. En este trabajo se evalúan los antecedentes epidemiológicos y los resultados inmunológicos para diferenciar entre pacientes con anisakidosis y aquellos con otras patologías digestivas que cursan con dolor abdominal.Pacientes y método: estudio de cohortes realizado con 134 pacientes: 52 fueron diagnosticados de anisakidosis por los hallazgos quirúrgicos y anatomopatológicos y/o seroconversión especí-fica frente a A. simplex (grupo A) y en 82 pacientes la anisakidosis fue excluida como diagnóstico (grupo NA: no-anisakidosis). Se han evaluado el antecedente de ingesta de pescado crudo, la prueba cutánea en prick (PC) y el inmunoblot IgE como elementos de diagnóstico.Resultados: los pacientes de los grupos A y NA mostraron resultados diferentes respecto a la de ingesta de pescado crudo (p < 0,0001) y la PC (p < 0,0001), con valores predictivos negativos (VPN) del 98,39 y 95,56% y positivos (VPP) del 70,83 y 87,50%, respectivamente. En el inmunoblot, se halló una banda de aproximadamente 60 kDa en el 86,2 y 19,2% de los pacientes del grupo A y NA, respectivamente (VPP: 62,50%; VPN: 94,03%).Conclusiones: en pacientes con dolor abdominal, la ingesta de pescado crudo o poco cocinado tiene elevada sensibilidad y VPN (98,39%) pero menor VPP (70,83%), por lo que nos ayuda principalmente a descartar la anisakidosis. La ausencia de sensibilización cutánea al extracto crudo de A. simplex apoya la ausencia de anisakidosis con una probabilidad alta (95,56%). La presencia de una banda de 60 kDa en el inmunoblot podría ser útil para su diagnóstico.Palabras clave: Anisakidosis. Anisakis simplex. Abdomen agudo. Anamnesis. Prueba cutánea. IgE específica. Inmunoblot. ABSTRACTIntroduction: Anisakis simplex can be a cause of digestive symptoms. Our aim was to evaluate the epidemiological antecedents and immunological data available for a differentiation between patients with anisakidosis and those with other acute abdominal problems.Patients and methods: this is a prospective cohort study involving 134 patients with acute abdominal problems: 52 patients were diagnosed with anisakidosis by means of surgical and pathological findings and/or specific IgE seroconversion against Anisakis simplex (group A), and in 82 patients anisakidosis had been ruled out (group NA: non-anisakidosis). We evaluated the antecedent of raw fish ingestion, the skin prick test, and IgE immunoblotting as diagnostic tools.Results: patients in groups A and NA differ in terms of prior raw fish ingestion (p < 0.0001) and positive SPT (p < 0.0001), with their respective negative predictive values (NPV) being 98.39% (95%CI: 90.17-99.92) and 95.56% (95%CI: 83.64-99.23). Regarding immunoblotting, in 86.2% of patients in group A a band of 60 kDa was detected, which was also detected in 19.2% of patients in group NA.Conclusions: a negative answer to the qu...

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