4 (all the extensions) and 85.22. We considered both ordinary hospitalization regimen and Trk receptor inhibitor day hospital. Tumorectomies, which represent the elective surgical treatment for minimal lesions (i.e. in situ carcinoma) have been excluded from this study because a specific code for this

procedure does not exist. However, minimal invasive cancers, which do not need further surgical treatments other than MLN2238 cost biopsy, represent only a small percentage (approximately below 5%) of the overall excision biopsies (intervention code 85.21). Data were stratified into four age groups (25–44, 45–64, 65–74 and ≥ 75 years) and were processed using Stata (StataCorp, College Station, USA) and Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, USA) softwares. BI 6727 cost We performed descriptive statistical analyses of the incidence in each age subgroup across the six examined years. The study period (from year 2000 to 2005) was chosen because it reflects the most recently available nationwide clinical (hospitalization records) and demographic data. Population data were obtained from the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) for each of the considered years [1]. Results A total of 100,745 mastectomies and 168,147 quadrantectomies were performed over six years, resulting

in a total of 268,892 major surgical procedures (Table 1). The overall number of surgeries (mastectomies + quadrantectomies) due to breast cancer was 41,608 in the year 2000, 43,443 in 2001, 44,491 in 2002, 45,065 in 2003, 47,085 in 2004, and rose up to 47,200 operations in year 2005, with a 13.4% increase over six years (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3). If compared to the official data of the Italian Ministry of Health,

which are based on the MIAMOD model approximations, there is a difference of about 26.5% regarding the incidence of breast cancers in the year 2005 (37,300 vs. 47,200 new cases, respectively). Lepirudin Considering all the six years together, the majority of surgical procedures due to breast cancer were performed in patients between 45 and 64 years of age (55%; n = 124,241 operations). Table 1 Total number of major surgical interventions (mastectomies and quadrantectomies) performed in Italy between 2000 and 2005 (SDO Italian hospitalizations database) Age group 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Six years total 25–44 5 291 5 694 5 854 6 063 6 674 6 808 36 384 45–64 19 485 20 438 21 130 20 748 21 142 21 298 124 241 65–74 9 671 9 966 10 356 10 145 11 209 10 808 62 155 > 75 7 161 7 345 7 151 8 109 8 060 8 286 46 112 Sub total 41 608 43 443 44 491 45 065 47 085 47 200 268 892 Table 2 Mastectomies performed in Italy between 2000 and 2005 (SDO Italian hospitalizations database) Age group 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 25–44 1 853 1 980 1 914 2 031 2 064 2 000 % increase vs. prev. year – +6.85% -3.33% +6.11% +1.62% -3.10% 45–64 6 705 6 677 6 776 6 197 6 029 5 780 % increase vs. prev. year – -0.41% +1.14% -8.54% -2.71% -4.