[Approaches to the study of occupational cancer with a low etiologic fraction]

Cancers with a low occupational etiologic fraction are still a major health issue, taking into account both that 2-8% of all neoplasm is attributable to occupational exposures and that a large amount of workers are still exposed to carcinogens in their occupational environments. The study of cancers with a low occupational etiologic fraction is to date of great interest, and consequently the Italian Ministry of Health have included this kind of research among the Essential Levels of Assistance (Livelli Essenziali di Assistenza, LEA), which represent the goals of the Italian Public Health System for the next years.

In Italy, two major methodologies were used to monitor cancers with a low occupational etiologic fraction: the first one has been based on an active search carried out during the patients' hospitalization and featured by a clinical approach, while the second one, based on record-linkage studies, has been characterized by an epidemiological approach.

This paper aims to briefly review these approaches and their major results, and, as a result, it indicates that both the methods could be useful for the study of cancers with a low occupational etiologic fraction, due to their complementary and interesting results.