Cancer incidence and mortality trends in France over 1990-2018 for solid tumors: the sex gap is narrowing.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze trends in cancer incidence and mortality (France, 1990-2018), with a focus on men-women disparities. METHODS: Incidence data stemmed from cancer registries (FRANCIM) and mortality data from national statistics (CépiDc). Incidence and mortality rates were modelled using bidimensional penalized splines of age and year (at diagnosis and at death, respectively). Trends in age-standardized rates were summarized by the average annual percent changes (AAPC) for all-cancers combined, 19 solid tumors, and 8 subsites. Sex gaps were indicated using male-to-female rate ratios (relative difference) and male-to-female rate differences (absolute difference) in 1990 and 2018, for incidence and mortality, respectively. RESULTS: For all-cancers, the sex gap narrowed over 1990-2018 in incidence (1.6 to 1.2) and mortality (2.3 to 1.7). The largest decreases of the male-to-female incidence rate ratio were for cancers of the lung (9.5 to 2.2), lip - oral cavity - pharynx (10.9 to 3.1), esophagus (12.6 to 4.5) and larynx (17.1 to 7.1). Mixed trends emerged in lung and oesophageal cancers, probably explained by differing risk factors for the two main histological subtypes. Sex incidence gaps narrowed due to increasing trends in men and women for skin melanoma (0.7 to 1, due to initially higher rates in women), cancers of the liver (7.4 to 4.4) and pancreas (2.0 to 1.4). Sex incidence gaps narrowed for colon-rectum (1.7 to 1.4), urinary bladder (6.9 to 6.1) and stomach (2.7 to 2.4) driven by decreasing trends among men. Other cancers showed similar increasing incidence trends in both sexes leading to stable sex gaps: thyroid gland (0.3 to 0.3), kidney (2.2 to 2.4) and central nervous system (1.4 to 1.5). CONCLUSION: In France in 2018, while men still had higher risks of developing or dying from most cancers, the sex gap was narrowing. Efforts should focus on avoiding risk factors (e.g., smoking) and developing etiological studies to understand currently unexplained increasing trends.

Improving sample preheating capabilities for dynamic loading on high-pulsed power drivers.

The CEA operates several High-Pulsed Power (HPP) drivers for dynamic loading experiments. The aim of these experiments is to provide quantitative information about the response of various materials of interest, mainly under quasi-isentropic compression. In order to improve our ability to explore these materials' behavior over a wide range of thermodynamic paths and starting from various non-ambient conditions, we developed a device capable of pre-heating both metallic and nonmetallic samples up to several hundred degrees prior to loading. This device is based on conductive heating and on a configuration that allows homogeneous heating with unprecedented temperature stability on our HPP platforms. Moreover, it is designed to allow efficient sample heating, within extremely severe electromagnetic environments associated with such platforms. The main features of this preheating device, whose design was guided by extensive thermal simulations, are presented, along with various technical solutions that enabled its insertion in a reliable experimental configuration on our HPP drivers. The results obtained from preliminary experiments on a composite material (carbon fibers embedded in epoxy resin) and on a high purity copper sample preheated to 323 K and 573 K, respectively, are presented. The performance and robustness of this heating device are potentially valuable for extending the range of studies in dynamic loading experiments for various materials under ramp compression using HPP drivers.

A prototype chopper for synchrotron time-resolved crystallographic measurements.

A mechanical x-ray chopper has been designed to perform microsecond time-resolved crystallographic studies at the DIAMOND synchrotron I19 beamline. It consists of two asymmetric absorbers rotating synchronously at frequencies from 0 to 50 Hz in the same direction around a rotation axis that is parallel to the x-ray beam. The duration of the x-ray pulses produced by the chopper is determined by the relative phase between the two blades, which can be adjusted. The chopper system presented in this paper offers a time resolution suitable for conducting in situ experiments that afford the crystal structure of materials while in their transient (>10 micros) photoactivated excited states.

Real-time X-Ray diffraction measurements of the phase transition in KCl shocked along

X-ray diffraction measurements and analyses were developed and used to examine the phase transition in KCl shocked to 7 GPa. Diffraction data were obtained below and above the transition stress, and related quantitatively to macroscopic compression in the two phases. Interplanar spacing measurements revealed isotropic compression of the unit cell. Above the transition stress, a diffraction peak from the (110) planes in phase II was observed consistently and the orientation of the transformed crystal structure was determined with respect to the phase I structure. This determination provides a mechanism for the atomic rearrangement from the rocksalt to the cesium chloride structure in KCl shocked along [100].