We conducted a systematic review of the risk of pancreatic cancer in people with type I and young-onset diabetes. In three cohort and six case-control studies, the relative risk for pancreatic cancer ...in people with (vs without) diabetes was 2.00 (95% confidence interval 1.37-3.01) based on 39 cases with diabetes.
Organically produced foods are less likely than conventionally produced foods to contain pesticide residues.
We examined the hypothesis that eating organic food may reduce the risk of soft tissue ...sarcoma, breast cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other common cancers in a large prospective study of 623 080 middle-aged UK women. Women reported their consumption of organic food and were followed for cancer incidence over the next 9.3 years. Cox regression models were used to estimate adjusted relative risks for cancer incidence by the reported frequency of consumption of organic foods.
At baseline, 30%, 63% and 7% of women reported never, sometimes, or usually/always eating organic food, respectively. Consumption of organic food was not associated with a reduction in the incidence of all cancer (n=53 769 cases in total) (RR for usually/always vs never=1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.99-1.07), soft tissue sarcoma (RR=1.37, 95% CI: 0.82-2.27), or breast cancer (RR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.02-1.15), but was associated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (RR=0.79, 95% CI: 0.65-0.96).
In this large prospective study there was little or no decrease in the incidence of cancer associated with consumption of organic food, except possibly for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
We examined consumption of animal foods, protein and calcium in relation to risk of prostate cancer among 142 251 men in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Associations ...were examined using Cox regression, stratified by recruitment centre and adjusted for height, weight, education, marital status and energy intake. After an average of 8.7 years of follow-up, there were 2727 incident cases of prostate cancer, of which 1131 were known to be localised and 541 advanced-stage disease. A high intake of dairy protein was associated with an increased risk, with a hazard ratio for the top versus the bottom fifth of intake of 1.22 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-1.41, P(trend)=0.02). After calibration to allow for measurement error, we estimated that a 35-g day(-1) increase in consumption of dairy protein was associated with an increase in the risk of prostate cancer of 32% (95% CI: 1-72%, P(trend)=0.04). Calcium from dairy products was also positively associated with risk, but not calcium from other foods. The results support the hypothesis that a high intake of protein or calcium from dairy products may increase the risk for prostate cancer.
The associations between serum concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), IGF-II and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBP)-3 and risk of breast cancer were investigated in a nested case-control ...study involving 117 cases (70 premenopausal and 47 postmenopausal at blood collection) and 350 matched controls within a cohort of women from the island of Guernsey, UK. Women using exogenous hormones at the time of blood collection were excluded. Premenopausal women in the top vs bottom third of serum IGF-I concentration had a nonsignificantly increased risk for breast cancer after adjustment for IGFBP-3 (odds ratio (OR) 1.71; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74-3.95; test for linear trend, P=0.21). Serum IGFBP-3 was associated with a reduction in risk in premenopausal women after adjustment for IGF-I (top third vs the bottom third: OR 0.49; 95% CI: 0.21-1.12, P for trend=0.07). Neither IGF-I nor IGFBP-3 was associated with risk in postmenopausal women and serum IGF-II concentration was not associated with risk in pre- or postmenopausal women. These data are compatible with the hypothesis that premenopausal women with a relatively high circulating concentration of IGF-I and low IGFBP-3 are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
The importance of vitamin D for bone health is well established, but few data exist on the relation between plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of fracture. The authors examined this ...association within the EPIC-Oxford (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Oxford cohort) study of men and women in the United Kingdom (1993-1999). Five years after recruitment, participants completed a follow-up questionnaire where fracture incidence was self-reported. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was measured in 730 incident fracture cases and 1,445 matched controls. There was a clear association between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and month of blood draw, the highest values being during the summer months. Among women, there were significant relations between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and age, body mass index, marital status, use of hormone therapy, physical activity, diet group, dietary intake of vitamin D, and alcohol. Similar relations were seen among men, although often they were nonsignificant because of smaller numbers. There was no evidence of an association between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and fracture risk for men or women; the relative risks associated with a doubling of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D were 1.15 (95% confidence interval: 0.82, 1.61) and 0.95 (95% confidence interval: 0.80, 1.13), respectively. These results were not affected by adjustment for potential confounders and were consistent across a number of subgroups.
We examined plasma concentrations of phyto-oestrogens in relation to risk for subsequent prostate cancer in a case-control study nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and ...Nutrition. Concentrations of isoflavones genistein, daidzein and equol, and that of lignans enterolactone and enterodiol, were measured in plasma samples for 950 prostate cancer cases and 1042 matched control participants. Relative risks (RRs) for prostate cancer in relation to plasma concentrations of these phyto-oestrogens were estimated by conditional logistic regression. Higher plasma concentrations of genistein were associated with lower risk of prostate cancer: RR among men in the highest vs the lowest fifth, 0.71 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53-0.96, P trend=0.03). After adjustment for potential confounders this RR was 0.74 (95% CI 0.54-1.00, P trend=0.05). No statistically significant associations were observed for circulating concentrations of daidzein, equol, enterolactone or enterodiol in relation to overall risk for prostate cancer. There was no evidence of heterogeneity in these results by age at blood collection or country of recruitment, nor by cancer stage or grade. These results suggest that higher concentrations of circulating genistein may reduce the risk of prostate cancer but do not support an association with plasma lignans.
Measurement of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the detection of prostate cancer has poor specificity in men with PSA levels between 2 and 10
ng/ml. It has been suggested that measurement of ...the ratio of free to total PSA (f/tPSA) or complexed PSA (cPSA) might offer an improvement. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic performance of these tests among men with PSA levels between 2 and 10
ng/ml.
Data on sensitivity and specificity were extracted from 66 eligible studies. Likelihood ratios and summary receiver operating characteristic curves were estimated and possible sources of heterogeneity between studies examined.
Use of the f/tPSA or the cPSA test improved diagnostic performance among men with a total PSA (tPSA) of 2–4 or 4–10
ng/ml compared to tPSA alone. The diagnostic performance of the f/tPSA test was significantly higher in the tPSA range of 4–10
ng/ml compared to a tPSA range of 2–4
ng/ml (
p
<
0.01); at a sensitivity of 95%, the specificity was 18% in the 4–10
ng/ml tPSA range and 6% in the 2–4
ng/ml tPSA range. Among studies that measured both isoforms, the diagnostic performance of the f/tPSA test and the cPSA was equivalent in both PSA ranges.
The use of the f/tPSA or cPSA test among men with PSA levels between 2 and 10
ng/ml can reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies whilst maintaining a high cancer detection rate.
Active smoking has little or no effect on breast cancer risk but some investigators have suggested that passive smoking and its interaction with active smoking may be associated with an increased ...risk. In a population based case-control study of breast cancer in women aged 36-45 years at diagnosis, information on active smoking, passive smoking in the home, and other factors, was collected at interview from 639 cases and 640 controls. Women were categorised jointly by their active and passive smoking exposure. Among never smoking controls, women who also reported no passive smoking exposure were significantly more likely to be nulliparous and to be recent users of oral contraceptives. Among those never exposed to passive smoking, there was no significant association between active smoking and breast cancer, relative risk (RR) of 1.12 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.72-1.73) for past smokers and RR of 1.19 (95% CI 0.72-1.95) for current smokers, nor was there an association with age started, duration or intensity of active smoking. Compared with women who were never active nor passive smokers, there was no significant association between passive smoking in the home and breast cancer risk in never smokers, RR of 0.89 (95% CI 0.64-1.25), in past smokers, RR of 1.09 (95% CI 0.75-1.56), or in current smokers, RR of 0.93 (95% CI 0.67-1.30). There was no trend with increasing duration of passive smoking and there was no heterogeneity among any of the subgroups examined. In this study, there was no evidence of an association between either active smoking or passive smoking in the home and risk of breast cancer.
We examined the relationship between body fatness, sports participation and breast cancer risk in 1560 premenopausal cases and 1548 controls, from three related population-based case-control studies ...in the UK. Half of the women with breast cancer were aged less than 36 years at diagnosis. Women who perceived themselves as plump at age 10 years had a relative risk of 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.69-0.99, P = 0.03) as compared with those who perceived themselves as thin. Self-reported obesity compared with leanness at diagnosis was associated with a relative risk of 0.78 (95% confidence interval 0.56-1.06, P = 0.11). Women who reported having been plump at age 10 years and overweight or obese at diagnosis had a relative risk of 0.75 (95% confidence interval 0.56-1.01, P = 0.06) as compared with those who reported being thin at age 10 years and at diagnosis. Findings for three related measures of body fatness suggested that obesity is associated with a reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer. There was no association between sports participation and breast cancer risk in these premenopausal women. The relative risk for spending an average of more than 1 h per week in sports compared with less from ages 12 to 30 years was 1.00 (95% CI 0.86-1.16, P = 0.98).
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