Highlights of This Issue

Abstract

Bonn and colleagues investigated the effect of physical activity after a prostate cancer diagnosis in a large cohort. Statistically significantly lower overall mortality rates were found among men engaged in walking/bicycling ≥20 min/day, performing household work ≥1 h/day, or exercising ≥1 h/week, compared to less active men. Higher levels of physical activity were associated with reduced rates of overall and prostate cancer–specific mortality, further strengthening previous results indicating beneficial effects of physical activity on survival among men with prostate cancer.Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) is one of the primary screening tests for colorectal cancer. Clarke and colleagues performed a meta-analysis to determine if uptake of FIT screening differs between men and women. Nineteen studies met the authors' inclusion criteria. Male FIT uptake was significantly lower than female uptake and this male/female difference persisted regardless of study design, screening organization, number of samples, age range, and setting. Further investigation is required to identify the factors that influence male nonparticipation in FIT screening.Milne and colleagues investigated associations between pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) risk and folate pathway gene polymorphisms and their modification by maternal folic acid supplements. Seven folate pathway gene polymorphisms were genotyped in 392 pediatric ALL cases and pre-pregnancy maternal folic acid supplement use information was collected. The authors report some folate-pathway gene polymorphisms in the child or parent may influence ALL risk. Folate pathway polymorphisms may be related to risk of childhood ALL, but larger studies are needed for conclusive results.Schmit and colleagues searched for miRNA-related polymorphisms contributing to colorectal cancer etiology using the Axiom miRNA Target Site Genotyping Array containing 237,858 markers. The study included 596 cases from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer study. The authors identified twenty-three markers with P values less than 5.0E–04 and replicated a previously published locus within the 3′-untranslated region of the insulin receptor gene INSR. This study demonstrates the potential for a miRNA-targeted genome-wide association study to identify candidate susceptibility loci and prioritize them for functional characterization.