Incidence Of Different Cancers Research Articles

Cancer incidence among patients attending a tertiary care cancer hospital in central India – A retrospective study

Background: Cancer is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. Cancer incidence varies widely throughout India from east to west and from north to south making the prevention and control programs difficult the alarming increase of cancer cases in low and middle-income countries like India warrants us to have a better knowledge about the transition in the epidemiology in various parts of the country. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of different cancers among patients visiting a tertiary care cancer hospital in central India. Materials and Methods: The data were collected retrospectively from the medical record database of a tertiary care cancer hospital in Central India from the time period between January 2017 and December 2021. A total of 13011 patients were registered at our hospital between this time period. Data were analyzed for the site of disease and tabulated, and then, the percentage distribution was calculated. Results: Head-and-neck cancer was the most commonly reported one followed by cervical cancer and breast cancer. Among gynecological malignancies, cervical cancer dominated the spectrum followed by ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. Tobacco-related cancers were seen in high number each year. Less commonly reported cancers were that of urethral, adrenal, germ cell tumors, and choriocarcinoma followed by that of eye and ear. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to set up stringent hospital-based and population-based cancer registration system to understand the profile of cancer in each geographical region for a better understanding and implementation of cancer control programs.

Clinicopathological Profile of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer and the Changing Trends in Its Histopathology: Experience From a Tertiary Care Cancer Center in Kashmir, India.

Background The overall frequency and incidence of different cancers across the globe, including lung cancer, are marked by ethnic and geographical variations. Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide that inflicts most of the cancer deaths. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes mostlung cancer cases. The aim of this study was to find the frequency and clinicopathological characteristics of NSCLC in high incidence zone of Kashmir, an ethnically and geographically distinct area in Northern India. Material and methods The study was conducted to evaluate the clinicopathological profile of NSCLC at a tertiary care cancer center,Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). The patients and case records were analyzed for clinical presentation and demographic features, smoking status, radiological features, histopathological type, and stage of their disease at presentation. Results The study included 1557 NSCLC patientsregistered over a period of seven years, i.e., 2008-2014. Most of the patients belonged to rural areas (70%).The median age of the whole cohort was 58.0 years (ranges 22-95 years), and the male-to-female ratio was 3.7:1 (male = 1231 and female = 326). Smokers comprised 77.39% of cases, and Hookah was the most common form of smoking (65.06%). The ratio of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma was 3.7:1 (67.5% vs. 24.9%). Stage III and IV disease accounted for 93% of cases (30.6% and 62.7%, respectively). Squamous cell carcinoma histopathology was dominant in smokers (74.3%) compared to adenocarcinoma (19%), while squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma histopathology ran parallel in nonsmokers (45.1% and 44%, respectively). Most of the patients had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status between 1 and 2 (79%). Conclusion We conclude Kashmir region is a very high-risk area for lung cancer, with NSCLC showing a high incidence. Most of our patients present in advanced stages, and the frequency of adenocarcinoma is showing an increasing trend over the years from 2008-2014.

Tirzepatide-Friend or Foe in Diabetic Cancer Patients?

It is a well-accepted fact that obesity and diabetes increase the risk of incidence of different cancers and their progression, leading to a decrease in the quality of life among affected cancer patients. In addition to decreasing the risk of cancers, maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI)/body weight and/or blood glucose levels within the normal range critically impacts the response to anti-cancer therapy among affected individuals. A cancer patient managing their body weight and maintaining blood glucose control responds better to anti-cancer therapy than obese individuals and those whose blood glucose levels remain higher than normal during therapeutic intervention. In some cases, anti-diabetic/glucose-lowering drugs, some of which are also used to promote weight loss, were found to possess anti-cancer potential themselves and/or support anti-cancer therapy when used to treat such patients. On the other hand, certain glucose-lowering drugs promoted the cancer phenotype and risked cancer progression when used for treatment. Tirzepatide (TRZD), the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide/gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) agonist, has recently gained interest as a promising injectable drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and was approved by the FDA after successful clinical trials (SURPASS 1/2/3/4 and 5, NCT03954834, NCT03987919, NCT03882970, NCT03730662, and NCT04039503). In addition, the reports from the SURMOUNT-1 clinical trial (NCT04184622) support the use of TRZD as an anti-obesity drug. In the current review article, we examine the possibility and molecular mechanisms of how TRZD intervention could benefit cancer therapeutics or increase the risk of cancer progression when used as an anti-diabetic drug in diabetic patients.

A retrospective study comparing oral health in cancer patients and healthy people.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral and dental health in cancer patients and control group, which was conducted in Tabriz Shahid Gazi hospital. A researchers-made and validated questionnaire including oral and dental health criteria, was filled by the cancer patients (201 cases) and healthy controls (199 cases). Then, the results of the study were analyzed by SPSS software, and reported as Odds ratios (95 % confidence intervals) in tow groups. The results indicate that comparison of filled tooth, tooth extraction, dental caries, and gingival problems including bleeding, gum surgery and inflammation in cancer and controls were significantly meaningful. However, the comparison between the two groups was not significant in terms of the type of the tooth (natural or denture) and the number of daily toothbrushes, but they were considered as risk factors due to statistical results. Environmental factors, and especially oral hygiene, can play an important role in the incidence of different cancers. Among these, the type of oral microorganisms, and their overgrowth and released antigens should be studied further in the emergence of different kinds of cancer in humans.

Association between metabolic syndrome, C-reactive protein, and the risk of primary liver cancer: a large prospective study

Background and aimsHigh-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are known to be associated with an increased incidence of different cancers. We aimed to evaluate the effect of MetS combined with high hs-CRP levels on the risk of primary liver cancer (PLC).MethodsParticipants were recruited from the Kailuan cohort study and were classified into four groups according to the presence or absence of MetS and inflammation (hs-CRP ≥ 3 or < 3 mg/L). The associations of MetS and inflammation with the risk of PLC were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsThis study included 92,770 participants. The mean age was 51.4 years old. Over a median follow-up of 13.02 years, 395 participants were diagnosed as PLC. Compared to the control participants without inflammation (hs-CRP < 3 mg/L) and MetS (n = 69,413), participants with high hs-CRP levels combined with MetS (n = 2,269) had a higher risk of PLC [hazard ratios (HR) 2.91; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.77–4.81], and participants with high hs-CRP levels and without MetS (n = 14,576) had the same trend (HR, 1.36; 95%CI, 1.05–1.75). However, participants with low hs-CRP levels and MetS (n = 6,512) had no significant association with an elevated risk of PLC (HR, 1.18; 95%CI, 0.76–1.82). After excluding participants who had cancer during the first year of follow-up, sensitivity analysis showed the same trend. In addition, co-occurrence of MetS and high hs-CRP levels had significant interactive effects on the risk of PLC between the sexes (P < 0.001) and the patients with HBV infection (P = 0.012).ConclusionsParticipants with co-occurrence of MetS and high hs-CRP levels have an elevated risk of PLC.Trial registrationKailuan study, ChiCTR–TNRC–11001489. Registered 24 August, 2011-Retrospectively registered, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=8050

The Cancer Burden and Patient Management at the Radiotherapy Department of Mulago Hospital, Uganda

Introduction: Cancer is still a world health concern. In developing countries like Uganda, cancer is one of the major health problems that are increasing due to increased life expectancy and the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. Objective: To establish the incidence of different cancers among patients presenting at the Radiotherapy department of Mulago Hospital, Uganda. Methods: It was a retrospective study in which 2253 medical records of biopsy proven cancer patients who were accrued between January 2007 to December 2008 were retrieved and reviewed. Results: Of all cancers reported for females, cervical carcinoma was the most frequent seen with 43.6% of cases, followed by breast cancer seen in 21% of cases. Prostate cancer was the most frequent in males seen in 39.7% of cases. Conclusion: There is an increase in the number of cancer patients in Uganda. There has been a similar increase in mortality rates owing to the limited resources to curb the morbidity of the disease. Developing more radiotherapy centres to handle the increasing number of patients is highly recommended.

Preprocessing Breast Cancer Data to Improve the Data Quality, Diagnosis Procedure, and Medical Care Services.

In recent years, due to an increase in the incidence of different cancers, various data sources are available in this field. Consequently, many researchers have become interested in the discovery of useful knowledge from available data to assist faster decision-making by doctors and reduce the negative consequences of such diseases. Data mining includes a set of useful techniques in the discovery of knowledge from the data: detecting hidden patterns and finding unknown relations. However, these techniques face several challenges with real-world data. Particularly, dealing with inconsistencies, errors, noise, and missing values requires appropriate preprocessing and data preparation procedures. In this article, we investigate the impact of preprocessing to provide high-quality data for classification techniques. A wide range of preprocessing and data preparation methods are studied, and a set of preprocessing steps was leveraged to obtain appropriate classification results. The preprocessing is done on a real-world breast cancer dataset of the Reza Radiation Oncology Center in Mashhad with various features and a great percentage of null values, and the results are reported in this article. To evaluate the impact of the preprocessing steps on the results of classification algorithms, this case study was divided into the following 3 experiments:Breast cancer recurrence prediction without data preprocessingBreast cancer recurrence prediction by error removalBreast cancer recurrence prediction by error removal and filling null valuesThen, in each experiment, dimensionality reduction techniques are used to select a suitable subset of features for the problem at hand. Breast cancer recurrence prediction models are constructed using the 3 widely used classification algorithms, namely, naïve Bayes, k-nearest neighbor, and sequential minimal optimization. The evaluation of the experiments is done in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, F-measure, precision, and G-mean measures. Our results show that recurrence prediction is significantly improved after data preprocessing, especially in terms of sensitivity, F-measure, precision, and G-mean measures.

Factors Affecting Use of Telemedicine and Telesurgery in Cancer Care (TTCC) among Specialist Physicians

Background:Considering the increasing incidence of different cancers, use of modern technologies such as TTCC can make a dramatic change in treatment of these diseases. So, if the evolution strategy conflicts with the organizational culture, national culture, and organizational structure of experts in this field, resistance will rise.Objective:The purpose of this study was to determine the effective factors on the use of TTCC in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences using the AHP model.Materials and Methods:This current descriptive study was carried out in 2018 on specialist physicians from five hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire consisting of two sections; demographic items and 27 effective factors influencing the implementation of TTCC technology, which was evaluated for validity and reliability. Data analysis was performed using analytical hierarchy process with expert choice and for empirical illustration are used to discuss the use of covariance-based SEM versus smart PLS software.Results:Based on AHP comparisons in the studied factors, the highest priority was the Cultural factor. In other words, commitment of senior executives to support the provision of a new technology with a weight of 0.327. The lowest priority, however, was related to support diverse approaches, innovation, creativeness, and acceptance of new ideas with a weight of 0.038. In regard with technical and organizational factors, out-of-hospital access to the intranet network and support provided by the doctors, with the weight of 0.221 and 0.205 in order, acquired the highest rates.Conclusion:Considering the high prevalence of cancer in Iran and the necessity of using new technologies in its treatment and by addressing the specialists’ views and opinions in this field, organizational and national culture in the application of TTCC technology should be promoted. This target can be hit through acceptance, change in attitude, and successful use of TTCC technology by medical professionals.

Evaluation of the Global Pattern of Cancer Survival and the Correlation With Healthcare Expenditures

Background: Cancer is a global health burden; the outcome varies widely across all countries. Sharing of experience in setting health policy (including health expenditure) is important. However, there is yet no comprehensive comparison of cancer outcome across all countries. Furthermore, comparison of cost-effectiveness of different systems is especially complex because the incidence of different cancers varies across countries, and their chances of curability differ substantially. Aim: We aims to provide the comparisons using available data and to stimulate global attention to the association of economic parameters with different outcomes. Methods: Cancer statistics from all 184 countries and 27 major cancers listed in GLOBOCAN 2012 were analyzed. The overall outcome of cancer patients was estimated by taking the complement of age-standardized mortality/incidence ratio [1 − (ASM/ASI)] as the proxy relative survival (RS). Taking into account the variation of country-specific cancer pattern, the proxy cancer site-standardized RS (SS-RS) of individual countries were calculated by weighting the proportion of specific cancer sites as compared with the global pattern of incidence. The overall economic parameters of different countries listed by the World Bank were correlated with the corresponding proxy SS-RS. Results: The unadjusted proxy RS among the 184 countries ranged from 0.111 to 0.702 (median = 0.386), the corresponding proxy SS-RS ranged from 0.124 to 0.622 (median = 0.359). The median total health expenditure per capita (HE) increased from US$37 for countries with proxy SS-RS &lt; 0.2, to $4255 for countries with proxy SS-RS ≥ 0.5. Results from logarithmic regression model showed exponential increase in total HE for better outcome. The expenditure varied widely among different strata, but the widest difference was observed among countries with SS-RS ≥ 0.5 (with total HE ranging from US$962 to $9361). Conclusion: Similar to age-standardization, estimation of outcome with adjustment for variation in pattern of cancer incidence is suggested for comparison among different countries, especially for studies related to assessment of health systems. Cancer outcome correlated significantly with economic parameters; the amount of HE escalated exponentially and varied widely among countries with high SS-RS ≥ 0.5. Sharing of experience among different countries will be valuable for developing the most cost-effective health system.

Abstract 4193: Biochanin A in pancreatic cancer

Abstract Pancreatic cancer, with its dismally low survival rate (&amp;lt;5%), is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Gemcitabine, the first-line drug approved by the FDA, has been marginally effective as it improves survival by only six months. Epidemiologic studies have implicated a role for dietary isoflavones in lowering the incidence of different cancers in the Asian population. Isoflavones such as genistein, biochanin A and daidzein have been tested for their anticancer potential in different cancers; however, the clastogenic effect associated with genistein limits its therapeutic potential. Primarily used in management of hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases, statins have been documented to exert antiproliferative effects. We hypothesized that a combination treatment of biochanin A and atorvastatin exerts enhanced anticancer effects on pancreatic cancer cells viz. AsPC1, PANC-1 and MIAPaCa-2. Our studies showed a decrease in cell viability on combination drug treatment with differential effects on mitogenic and cell signaling pathways in the cell lines investigated. In PANC-1 cells, biochanin A and atorvastatin combination treatment decreased invasiveness, dampened the expression of activated STAT3, and critical mediators of cell cycle progression. We also observed the involvement of enhanced proapoptotic effect of the combination treatment in AsPC-1 cell line and potential cell cycle arrest phenomenon in PANC-1 cells. Cell metabolism studies using seahorse XFp analyzer showed an increase in mitochondrial respiration and a decrease in glycolytic activity on combination treatment. Further, the XF-Plasma Membrane Permeabilizer (XF-PMP) assay used to evaluate the mitochondrial ETC complex activity showed a complete impairment of complex I and II (prominently), with MIAPaCa-2 being more susceptible to the combination treatment than AsPC1 and PANC-1. Together, the combination treatment-induced effects on pancreatic cancer cell lines may have potential implications in developing novel and improved therapies for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Vilas Desai, Satya Murthy Tadinada, James C K Lai, Alok Bhushan. Biochanin A in pancreatic cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4193.

Burden of Cancers Attributable to Infectious Agents in Nigeria: 2012-2014.

Infections by certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites have been identified as risk factors for some cancers. In Nigeria, like many other developing countries, infections remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. While there are data on the incidence of different cancers in Nigeria, there has been no study of cancers attributable to infections. This study was carried out to determine the burden of cancers attributable to infections using data from two population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) in Nigeria. We obtained data on cancers associated with EBV, human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B and C, HIV, HHV8, Helicobacter pylori, and Schistosoma spp. from the databases of Abuja and Enugu cancer registries in Nigeria. We used population-attributable fraction for infections-associated cancers in developing countries that are based on prevalence data and relative risk estimates from previous studies. The PBCRs reported 4,336 incident cancer cases [age standardized incidence rate (ASR) 113.9 per 100,000] from 2012 to 2014, of which 1,627 (37.5%) were in males and 2,709 (62.5%) were in females. Some 1,030 (23.8%) of these cancers were associated with infections (ASR 44.4 per 100,000), while 951 (22.0%) were attributable to infections (ASR 41.6 per 100,000). Cancers of the cervix (n = 392, ASR 28.3 per 100,000) and liver (n = 145, ASR 3.4 per 100,000); and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 110, ASR 2.5 per 100,000) were the commonest infections-associated cancers overall. The commonest infectious agents associated with cancers in this population were HPV, EBV, hepatitis B and C, HIV, and HHV8. Our results suggest that 23.8% of incident cancer cases in this population were associated with infections, while 22.0% were attributable to infections. The infections attributable cancers are potentially preventable with strategies, such as vaccination, risk factor modification, or anti-infective treatment.

The marine toxin okadaic acid induces alterations in the expression level of cancer-related genes in human neuronal cells

Okadaic acid (OA) is one of the most common and highly distributed marine toxins. It can be accumulated in several molluscs and other marine organisms and cause acute gastrointestinal symptoms after oral consumption by humans, called diarrheic shellfish poisoning. However other toxic effects beyond these gastrointestinal symptoms were also reported. Thus, OA was found to induce important chromosomal abnormalities and other genetic injuries that can lead to severe pathologies, including cancer. Furthermore, the relationship between OA and carcinogenic processes has been previously demonstrated in in vivo studies with rodents, and also suggested in human epidemiological studies. In this context, further research is required to better understand the underlying mechanisms of OA-related tumourigenesis. In a previous study, we identified 247 genes differentially expressed in SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells exposed to 100nM OA at different times (3, 24 and 48h) by means of suppression subtractive hybridization. These genes were involved in relevant cell functions such as signal transduction, cell cycle, metabolism, and transcription and translation processes. However, due to the high potential percentage of false positives that may be obtained by this approach, results from SSH are recommended to be analyzed by an independent method. In the present study, we selected ten genes related to cancer initiation or progression, directly or indirectly, for further quantitative PCR analysis (ANAPC13, PTTG1, CALM2, CLU, HN1, MALAT1, MAPRE2, MLLT11, SGA-81M and TAX1BP1). Results obtained showed important alterations in the expression patterns of all the genes evaluated at one or more treatment times, providing, for the first time, a possible explanation at the molecular level of the potential relationship between the consumption of OA-contaminated shellfish and the incidence of different cancers in humans. Nevertheless, given the complexity of this process, more exhaustive studies are required before drawing any final conclusion.

Primary cancers before and after prostate cancer diagnosis

The occurrence of multiple cancers may indicate common etiology; and, although some studies have investigated the risk of second primary cancers after prostate cancer (PCa), there are no studies on cancers before PCa. The PCBaSe Sweden database is based on the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR), which covers >96% of PCa cases. The authors estimated the prevalence and cumulative incidence of different cancers before and after PCa diagnosis in 72,613 men according to PCa treatment and disease stage in PCBaSe and their matched comparison cohort of men who were free of PCa. In total, 6829 men were diagnosed with another primary cancer before their PCa diagnosis, including 138 men at the time of PCa diagnosis and 5230 men were diagnosed after PCa diagnosis. Cancer of the bladder or colon and nonmelanoma of the skin were the 3 most frequently observed cancers before and after PCa diagnosis. At the time of PCa diagnosis, the prevalence of these 3 cancers was 1.94% for bladder cancer, 1.08% for colon cancer, and 1.08% for nonmelanoma skin cancer, compared with 1.30%, 0.96%, and 1.03%, respectively, for the matched comparison cohort. Five years after PCa diagnosis, the difference in incidence proportion between PCa men and their comparison cohort was 7 ‰ (95% CI, 5.6 ‰-8.5 ‰), 1.3 ‰ (0 ‰-2.6 ‰), and 1.6 ‰ (0.6 ‰-2.6 ‰) for these 3 cancers, respectively. From a uro-oncologic point of view, it is interesting to note that the prevalence of kidney cancer at the time of PCa diagnosis was 0.42% compared with 0.28% for the matched comparison cohort. Approximately 17% of all PCa occurred in combination with another primary cancer (before or after PCa diagnosis). Detection bias probably explains part of this observation, but further investigations are required to assess possible underlying mechanisms.

Synergistic effect of Biochanin A on antiproliferative potential of Atorvastatin

Pancreatic cancer, with its dismally low survival rate, is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and is the fourth leading cause of cancer‐related deaths in the United States. Gemcitabine, the first line drug approved by the FDA has not been a huge therapeutic success because it improves the survival by just six months. Epidemiological studies implicated a role for dietary isoflavones in lower incidence of different cancers in the Asian population. Isoflavones such as genistein have been tested for their anti‐cancer potentials in different cancers. Primarily used in management of hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases, statins have been documented to exert anti‐proliferative effects. We have therefore hypothesized a combination treatment with an isoflavone (i.e., biochanin A) and a statin (i.e., atorvastatin) exerts synergistic anti‐cancer effects on pancreatic cancer cells. Our ongoing studies have demonstrated that biochanin A and atorvastatin synergistically lowered survival of AsPC1 and MIAPaCa‐2 pancreatic cancer cells. Concomitant with lowering survival of these cancer cells, biochanin A and atorvastatin combination treatment also induced morphological changes (e.g., shape &amp; cell rounding) in these cells. Our ongoing studies to elucidate signaling mechanisms underlying the combination treatment effects suggested that the PI3K/Akt pathway was unlikely to be implicated in the combination treatment‐induced death of pancreatic cancer cells. Thus, our findings may have therapeutic potential in the design of new combination therapy for pancreatic cancer.Grant support‐ INBRE Program, NIH Grant No. P20 RR016454, Mountain States Tumor and Medical Research Institute and University Research Committee, ISU grant.

Cancer in Kashmir, India: Burden and pattern of disease

Incidence and prevalence of cancers differ in different regions of the world. To study the profile of different cancers in a particular cancer belt helps to know the exact incidence of different cancers in that region and their likely etiology. The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of different cancers in Kashmir valley. Retrospective study of patients registered at our Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) from Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2011 was carried out. All patients were histologically proven malignancies and were referred to the RCC for proper staging and treatment. All patients were properly evaluated and treated. A total of 8648 patients were registered during this period. Esophageal cancer was the most common cancer followed by cancers of Lung, Stomach, Colorectal, Breast, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Gastro esophageal junction, Ovary, Skin, Gallbladder, Multiple Myeloma, Acute Lymphoid Leukemia, Urinary Bladder, Prostate and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Pattern of malignancies in valley is different from rest of the India. Gastrointestinal malignancies are the commonest malignancies in Kashmir valley followed by lung cancer in males and breast cancer in females.

Spatial analysis of the risk of multiple cancers in relation to a petrochemical plant

In Environmental Epidemiology studies, the effects of the presence of a source of pollution on the population health can be evaluated by models that consider the distance from the source as a possible risk factor. We introduce a hierarchical Bayesian model in order to investigate the association between the risk of multiple pathologies and the presence of a single pollution source. Our approach provides the possibility to incorporate spatial effects and other confounding factors within a logistic regression model. Spatial effects are decomposed into the sum of a disease‐specific parametric component accounting for the distance from the point source and a common semi‐parametric component that can be interpreted as a residual spatial variation. The model is applied to data from a spatial case–control study to evaluate the association of the incidence of different cancers with the residential location in the neighborhood of a petrochemical plant in the Brindisi area (Italy). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Cancer risk among users of oral contraceptives: cohort data from the Royal College of General Practitioner's oral contraception study

Objective To examine the absolute risks or benefits on cancer associated with oral contraception, using incident data.Design Inception cohort study. Setting Royal College of General Practitioners' oral contraception study.Participants Directly...

A study of US-based Indian and Pakistani population with cancer diagnosis reported in the SEER database from 1988 to 2002

20116 Background: Southeast Asian population comprises about 1.5% of the US population and one of the rapidly growing ethnic groups. This is the first study in US-based Indian and Pakistani patients with new diagnosis of cancer analyzing the epidemiologic data. Methods: SEER cancer incidence database have reported cancer incidence from 13 SEER registries from 1973 to 2002. Frequency sessions were performed and descriptive parameters were calculated regarding age, sex, marital status, vital statistics, stage, grade, tumor sites and other diagnostic tests employed. Results: About 11% of the estimated Indian and Pakistani population live in the 13 SEER registry areas. A total of 4,229 cases were reported since 1988 in this subcategory, which is about 0.03% of the total reported cases. 2148 (50.8%) were male and 2081 (49.2%) were female (p = 0.821). Average age at diagnosis was 51 years in male and 53 years in female (p = 0.7295). Table shows the incidence of different cancers compiled from American Cancer Society (ACS) (2005)1, SEER2 and World Health Organization (WHO) (2002)3 databases. Conclusions: Oral cavity cancer in males, and Breast and cervical cancer in females are common malignancies in India and Pakistan. Our study shows that prostate and breast cancer are most common in males and females in US-based Indian and Pakistani population respectively. Immigrants change their demographics regarding cancers and these differences could be attributed to multiple factors. This data may also have implications in terms of earlier screening of cancer in this population and earlier intervention. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Risk of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Family History of Lymphatic, Hematologic, and Other Cancers

Abstract Background: An elevated risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) has been associated with a family history of NHL and several other malignancies, but the magnitude of risks and mechanisms are uncertain. Methods: We used self-reported family history data from a recent multicenter U.S.-based case-control studies of NHL to evaluate familial aggregation of NHL with various hematolymphoproliferative and other cancers. Estimates of familial aggregation were obtained as hazard ratios (HR) that compare incidence of different cancers in first-degree relatives of NHL cases with that in the first-degree relatives of NHL controls. Limitations of the study included low participation rates (76% for cases and 52% for controls) and potential differential accuracy of recall. Results: Risk of NHL was elevated in relatives of NHL cases [HR, 2.9; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.95–8.53]; the aggregation seems to be stronger for siblings (HR, 7.6; 95% CI, 0.98–58.8) and for male relatives (HR, 6.2; 95% CI, 0.77–50.0). Risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma seems to be also elevated among relatives of early-onset (&amp;lt;50 years) NHL cases (HR, 3.2; 95% CI, 0.88–11.6). Evaluation of family history of other cancers provided modest evidence for an increased risk of melanoma of the skin (HR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.08–7.75), pancreatic cancer (HR, 2.1; 95% CI, 0.96–4.43), stomach cancer (HR, 1.8; 95% CI, 0.91–3.63), and prostate cancer (HR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.87–1.99). Conclusions: These results are consistent with previous findings of familial aggregation of NHL, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and a few other cancers. The pattern of male-specific and sibling-specific familial aggregation of NHL we observed, if confirmed, may shed new light on the possible mechanisms that underlie familial aggregation of the disease.

The fireside hypothesis: was there differential selection to tolerate air pollution during human evolution?

It is believed that sometime around 1.9 million years ago early hominid ancestors began to migrate out of Africa. Migration north and away from the equator would have forced early humans to encounter seasonal fluctuations in temperature. As a means of adapting to cold climates, the use of fire undoubtedly played an important role. We hypothesize that progressive exposure to toxic airborne particles produced from combustion created selective pressure to develop an adaptation to the inhalation of smoke. In this paper we test this hypothesis using archival data on the incidence of different cancers among geographically distinct human populations. As predicted from evolutionary theory, the incidence of lung cancer is inversely proportional to the ostensible reliance on fire of geographically different groups during human evolutionary history.