Highlights of This Issue

Abstract

In 2007, the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) released eight recommendations aimed at preventing the most common cancers worldwide. Hastert and colleagues analyzed these recommendations and examined their association with invasive breast cancer incidence over a period of 6.7 years. The authors report that breast cancer risk was reduced by 60% in women who met at least five recommendations compared with those who met none. These important findings show that adherence to the WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations is associated with reduced postmenopausal breast cancer incidence.Low-fat diet interventions reduced the risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in a clinical trial and in animal studies. Gamba and colleagues evaluated the effect of low-fat dietary patterns on NMSC and melanoma in postmenopausal women. In over 8.1 years of follow-up, low-fat diet interventions did not affect the overall incidence of NMSC or melanoma. The authors note that the interaction between baseline fat intake and dietary interventions warrants further investigation.Rare, inherited mutations account for 5% to 10% of all prostate cancer cases, but few causative mutations have been identified. FitzGerald and colleagues performed whole-exome sequencing on hereditary prostate cancer (HPC) families. Candidate genetic variants were then genotyped in an independent set of HPC families. Two variants in the BTNL2 gene were associated with elevated prostate cancer risk. These results implicate BTNL2 as a novel prostate cancer susceptibility gene.To examine statin use and breast cancer risk, McDougall and colleagues used data from a population-based case–control study. They found that current users of statins for 10 years or longer had an increased risk of invasive ductal carcinoma compared with individuals who never used statins. Among women diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia, current users of statins had more than double the risk of both invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma compared with never users.