Highlights of This Issue

Abstract

Worldwide, squamous cell carcinoma (SSC) represents the dominant type for cancers of the upper aero-digestive tract (UADT). Although high intake of red and processed meat is a well-established risk factor for colorectal cancer, its association to UADT SCC is not clear. Steffen and colleagues investigated this association and report that, among smokers, the intake of processed meat was positively associated with risk of UADT SCC. These results suggest that smokers could be increasing their risk for UADT SCC if they also consume large amounts of processed meat.Bladder cancer is among the five most common malignancies worldwide. In this study, Urquidi and colleagues report a urothelial cell transcriptomic signature associated with bladder cancer. Gene expression profiling was applied to urine samples from patients with known bladder disease status. The analysis resulted in a 14-gene diagnostic signature that predicts the presence of bladder cancer with high accuracy. An accurate, noninvasive bladder cancer detection assay could lead to better detection, monitoring and control.Although leukemia is common in the United States, there are few established risk factors. If risk factors vary across birth cohorts, leukemia incidence should reflect these changes. To examine the incidence rates of leukemia across to birth cohorts, Rosenberg and colleagues used data from the NCI's SEER program and report that adult leukemia incidence varied significantly across birth cohorts for most leukemia types. These results support the hypothesis that adult leukemia risks are significantly modulated by environmental and lifestyle exposures and that identifying these risk factors could help reduce incidence rates of adult leukemia.Because both mammographic breast density and endogenous sex-hormone levels are strong risk factors for breast cancer, Varghese and colleagues investigated whether these risk factors share a genetic basis. This study found no significant associations between estradiol, testosterone, or sex-hormone binding globulin levels and three different breast density measures. Thus, breast density and sex hormones can be considered independent sets of traits and used as intermediate phenotypes in the search for breast cancer susceptibility loci.