Identification of new genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer through consideration of gene-environment interactions

Genes that alter disease risk only in combination with certain environmental exposures may not be detected in genetic association analysis. By using methods accounting for gene-environment (G × E) interaction, we aimed to identify novel genetic loci associated with breast cancer risk. Up to 34,475 cases and 34,786 controls of European ancestry from up to 23 studies in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium were included. Overall, 71,527 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), enriched for association with breast cancer, were tested for interaction with 10 environmental risk factors using three recently proposed hybrid methods and a joint test of association and interaction. Analyses were adjusted for age, study, population stratification, and confounding factors as applicable. Three SNPs in two independent loci showed statistically significant association: SNPs rs10483028 and rs2242714 in perfect linkage disequilibrium on chromosome 21 and rs12197388 in ARID1B on chromosome 6. While rs12197388 was identified using the joint test with parity and with age at menarche (P-values = 3 × 10(−07)), the variants on chromosome 21 q22.12, which showed interaction with adult body mass index (BMI) in 8,891 postmenopausal women, were identified by all methods applied. SNP rs10483028 was associated with breast cancer in women with a BMI below 25 kg/m(2) (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.15–1.38) but not in women with a BMI of 30 kg/m(2) or higher (OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.72–1.11, P for interaction = 3.2 × 10(−05)). Our findings confirm comparable power of the recent methods for detecting G × E interaction and the utility of using G × E interaction analyses to identify new susceptibility loci

Feed the Alien!: The Effects of a Nutrition Instruction Game on Children's Nutritional Knowledge and Food Intake

Item does not contain fulltextObjective: Serious games are a promising venue to increase children's nutritional knowledge in an entertaining format. The aim of this study was to test the short-term effectiveness of the Alien Health Game, a videogame designed to teach elementary school children about nutrition and healthy food choices. Materials and Methods: To examine the effects of the Alien Health Game, an experimental design with a single between-subjects factor (experimental condition vs. active control condition) was used. A total of 108 Dutch children (10-13 years; 58 boys) were randomly assigned to either play Alien Health using the Kinect sensor for two consecutive days, for 1 hour of gameplay (experimental condition; n = 50), or a web-based nutrition game for the same period (active control condition; n = 58). Participants' nutritional knowledge was assessed at pretest, immediate, and at 2-week follow-up. Food intake was assessed at immediate and 2-week follow-up. Results: Participants who played Alien Health had better knowledge of the five most important macronutrients of foods at immediate posttest, but not at follow-up. Participants were better able to distinguish the healthier food item out of two options over time, but this effect did not differ for those in the experimental versus the active control condition. No differences in food intake, neither in the consumption of nutrient-dense or energy-dense foods, were found between children playing both games. Conclusion: A brief game-based intervention like the Alien Health Game has the potential to improve children's nutritional knowledge in the short term, but may not be strong enough to increase nutritional knowledge and actual eating behavior in the long term. Further investigation is warranted before this game is applied in future nutrition education programs.11 p

The Information Strategy Model: a framework for developing a monitoring strategy for national policy making and SDG6 reporting

Representatives from 14 countries worldwide worked together on improving their monitoring and ultimately their water management to reach the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 goals by 2030, thereby testing the Information Strategy Model (ISM). This model is developed to support identifying the need for information for water management. In a workshop setting, participants were instructed and subsequently developed the ISM for their own situation. The results show that the ISM fulfils its task of structuring the development and improvement of a monitoring network, but can be enhanced by adding detailed information for specific elements and needs explanation and assistance to be of use.Water Resource

Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk

The environmental crisis is increasing risks to security and peace worldwide, notably in countries that are already fragile. Indicators of insecurity such as the number of conflicts, the number of hungry people and military expenditure are rising; so are indicators of environmental decline, climate change, biodiversity, pollution and other areas. In combination, the security and environmental crises are creating compound, cascading, emergent, systemic and existential risks. Without profound changes in approach by institutions of authority, risks will inevitably proliferate quickly.Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk surveys the evolving risk landscape and documents a number of developments that indicate a pathway to solutions––in international law and policy, in peacekeeping operations and among non-governmental organizations. It finds that two principal avenues need to be developed: (a) combining peacebuilding and environmental restoration, and (b) effectively addressing the underlying environmental issues. It also analyses the potential of existing and emerging pro-environment measures for exacerbating risks to peace and security. The findings demonstrate that only just and peaceful transitions to more sustainable practices can be effective––and show that these transitions also need to be rapid.Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk offers policy principles and recommendations for navigating this new era of risk. A longer report setting out the evidence base in detail will be published later this year

Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk

The environmental crisis is increasing risks to security and peace worldwide, notably in countries that are already fragile. Indicators of insecurity such as the number of conflicts, the number of hungry people and military expenditure are rising; so are indicators of environmental decline, climate change, biodiversity, pollution and other areas. In combination, the security and environmental crises are creating compound, cascading, emergent, systemic and existential risks. Without profound changes in approach by institutions of authority, risks will inevitably proliferate quickly.Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk surveys the evolving risk landscape and documents a number of developments that indicate a pathway to solutions––in international law and policy, in peacekeeping operations and among non-governmental organizations. It finds that two principal avenues need to be developed: (a) combining peacebuilding and environmental restoration, and (b) effectively addressing the underlying environmental issues. It also analyses the potential of existing and emerging pro-environment measures for exacerbating risks to peace and security. The findings demonstrate that only just and peaceful transitions to more sustainable practices can be effective––and show that these transitions also need to be rapid.Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk offers policy principles and recommendations for navigating this new era of risk. A longer report setting out the evidence base in detail will be published later this year

Daratumumab-based treatment for immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis

none269siBACKGROUND Systemic immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis is characterized by deposition of amyloid fibrils of light chains produced by clonal CD38+ plasma cells. Daratumumab, a human CD38-targeting antibody, may improve outcomes for this disease. METHODS We randomly assigned patients with newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis to receive six cycles of bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone either alone (control group) or with subcutaneous daratumumab followed by single-agent daratumumab every 4 weeks for up to 24 cycles (daratumumab group). The primary end point was a hematologic complete response. RESULTS A total of 388 patients underwent randomization. The median follow-up was 11.4 months. The percentage of patients who had a hematologic complete response was significantly higher in the daratumumab group than in the control group (53.3% vs. 18.1%) (relative risk ratio, 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1 to 4.1; P<0.001). Survival free from major organ deterioration or hematologic progression favored the daratumumab group (hazard ratio for major organ deterioration, hematologic progression, or death, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.93; P=0.02). At 6 months, more cardiac and renal responses occurred in the daratumumab group than in the control group (41.5% vs. 22.2% and 53.0% vs. 23.9%, respectively). The four most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were lymphopenia (13.0% in the daratumumab group and 10.1% in the control group), pneumonia (7.8% and 4.3%, respectively), cardiac failure (6.2% and 4.8%), and diarrhea (5.7% and 3.7%). Systemic administration-related reactions to daratumumab occurred in 7.3% of the patients. A total of 56 patients died (27 in the daratumumab group and 29 in the control group), most due to amyloidosis-related cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis, the addition of daratumumab to bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone was associated with higher frequencies of hematologic complete response and survival free from major organ deterioration or hematologic progression.noneKastritis E.; Palladini G.; Minnema M.C.; Wechalekar A.D.; Jaccard A.; Lee H.C.; Sanchorawala V.; Gibbs S.; Mollee P.; Venner C.P.; Lu J.; Schonland S.; Gatt M.E.; Suzuki K.; Kim K.; Cibeira M.T.; Beksac M.; Libby E.; Valent J.; Hungria V.; Wong S.W.; Rosenzweig M.; Bumma N.; Huart A.; Dimopoulos M.A.; Bhutani D.; Waxman A.J.; Goodman S.A.; Zonder J.A.; Lam S.; Song K.; Hansen T.; Manier S.; Roeloffzen W.; Jamroziak K.; Kwok F.; Shimazaki C.; Kim J.-S.; Crusoe E.; Ahmadi T.; Tran N.; Qin X.; Vasey S.Y.; Tromp B.; Schecter J.M.; Weiss B.M.; Zhuang S.H.; Vermeulen J.; Merlini G.; Comenzo R.L., Bradley Augustson, Fiona Kwok, Peter Mollee, Simon Gibbs, Chantal Doyen, Greet Bries, Isabelle Vande Broek, Ka Lung Wu, Koen Theunissen, Koen Van Eygen, Michel Delforge, Nathalie Meuleman, Philip Vlummens, Angelo Maiolino, Breno Moreno de Gusmão, Carlos Eduardo Miguel, Edvan Crusoe, Fernanda Moura, Fernanda Seguro, Jandey Bigonha, Juliane Musacchio, Karla Zanella, Laura Garcia, Marcelo Eduardo Zanella Capra, Reijane Alves de Assis, Rosane Bittencourt, Vania Hungria, Walter Braga, Wolney Barreto, Christopher Venner, Donna Reece, Emilie Lemieux-Blanchard, Kevin Song, Michael Sebag, Selay Lam, Victor Zepeda, Haitao Zhang, Jianda Hu, Jin Lu, Juan Li, Songfu Jiang, Ting Niu, Wenming Chen, Xiaonong Chen, Zhen Cai, Zhou Fude, Maja Oelholm Vase, Morten Salomo, Niels Abildgaard, Alain Fuzibet, Anne-Marie Stoppa, Arnaud Jaccard, Bertrand Arnulf, Bruno Moulin, Bruno Royer, David Ghez, Denis Caillot, Dominique Chauveau, Franck Bridoux, Lauriane Clement-Filliatre, Lionel Karlin, Lotfi Benboubker, Mamoun Dib, Margaret Macro, Mohamad Mohty, Olivier Decaux, Olivier Hermine, Olivier Tournilhac, Philippe Moreau, Salomon Manier, Sylvain Choquet, Véronique Dorvaux, Alexander Carpinteiro, Axel Nogai, Britta Besemer, Christoph Roellig, Roland Fenk, Stefan Knop, Stefan Schönland, Timon Hansen, Argiris Symeonidis, Efstathios Kastritis, Gabor Mikala, Tamás Masszi, Zsolt Nagy, Celia Suriu, Hila Magen, Iuliana Vaxman, Lev Shvidel, Meir Preis, Moshe Gatt, Noa Lavi, Osnat Jarchowsky, Tamar Tadmor, Yael Cohen, Angelo Vacca, Giovanni Palladini, Mario Boccadoro, Maurizio Martelli, Maurizio Musso, Michele Cavo, Chihiro Shimazaki, Hiroyuki Takamatsu, Kazutaka Sunami, Kenshi Suzuki, Nagaaki Katoh, Shinsuke Iida, Takayuki Ikezoe, Tomoaki Fujisaki, Yuta Katayama, Chang Ki Min, Ho-Jin Shin, Jin Seok Kim, Jung Yong Hong, Ki Hyun Kim, Sung-Soo Yoon, Aline Ramirez, Alvaro Cabrera, Christian Ramos, David Gomez Almaguer, Deborah Martinez, Guillermo Ruiz, Helen Dayani Caballero, Juan Antonio Flores Jimenez, Annemiek Broijl, Laurens Nieuwenhuizen, Monique Minnema, Paula Ypma, Wilfried Roeloffzen, Dominik Dytfeld, Grzegorz Charlinski, Grzegorz Helbig, Krzysztof Jamroziak, Sebastian Grosicki, Wieslaw Jedrzejczak, Albert Oriol Rocafiguera, Elham Askari, Fernando Escalante Barrigon, Isabel Krsnik Castello, Javier De la Rubia Comos, Jesus Martin Sanchez, Joaquin Martinez Lopez, Jose Angel Hernandez Rivas, Luis Felipe Casado Montero, Maria Jesus Blanchard Rodriguez, Maria Teresa Cibeira Lopez, Maria Victoria Mateos Manteca, Marta Sonia Gonzalez Perez, Mercedes Gironella Mesa, Rafael Rios Tamayo, Ramon Lecumberri Villamediana, Ricarda Garcia Sanchez, Sunil Lakhwani, Yolanda Gonzalez, Hareth Nahi, Kristina Carlsson, Markus Hansson, Ulf-Henrik Mellqvist, Ali Unal, Burhan Ferhanoglu, Hayri Ozsan, Levent Undar, Mehmet Turgut, Mehmet Yilmaz, Meral Beksac, Muhlis Cem Ar, Muzaffer Demir, Sevgi Besisik, Ashutosh Wechalekar, Jamie Cavenagh, Jim Cavet, Mark Cook, Rachel Hall, Adam Waxman, Anuj Mahindra, Cesar Rodriguez Valdes, Christine Ye, Craig Reeder, Daphne Friedman, David Siegel, Divaya Bhutani, Edward Libby, Eva Medvedova, Frank Passero, Giada Bianchi, Giampaolo Talamo, Guido Tricot, Hans Lee, Heather Landau, Jan Moreb, Jason Valent, Jeffrey Matous, Jeffrey A Zonder, Jesus Berdeja, Jonathan Kaufman, Keith Stockerl-Goldstein, Keren Osman, Ketan Doshi, Kevin Barton, Larry Anderson, Manisha Bhutani, Mehmet Kocoglu, Michael Rosenzweig, Michael Schuster, Michaela Liedtke, Morie Gertz, Naresh Bumma, Natalie Callander, Raymond Comenzo, Robert Vescio, Roger Pearse, Sandy W Wong, Stacey A Goodman, Stefano Tarantolo, Taimur Sher, Tibor Kovacsovics, Tomer Mark, Vaishali Sanchorawala, William BensingerKastritis E.; Palladini G.; Minnema M.C.; Wechalekar A.D.; Jaccard A.; Lee H.C.; Sanchorawala V.; Gibbs S.; Mollee P.; Venner C.P.; Lu J.; Schonland S.; Gatt M.E.; Suzuki K.; Kim K.; Cibeira M.T.; Beksac M.; Libby E.; Valent J.; Hungria V.; Wong S.W.; Rosenzweig M.; Bumma N.; Huart A.; Dimopoulos M.A.; Bhutani D.; Waxman A.J.; Goodman S.A.; Zonder J.A.; Lam S.; Song K.; Hansen T.; Manier S.; Roeloffzen W.; Jamroziak K.; Kwok F.; Shimazaki C.; Kim J.-S.; Crusoe E.; Ahmadi T.; Tran N.; Qin X.; Vasey S.Y.; Tromp B.; Schecter J.M.; Weiss B.M.; Zhuang S.H.; Vermeulen J.; Merlini G.; Comenzo R.L., Bradley Augustson, Fiona Kwok, Peter Mollee, Simon Gibbs, Chantal Doyen, Greet Bries, Isabelle Vande Broek, Ka Lung Wu, Koen Theunissen, Koen Van Eygen, Michel Delforge, Nathalie Meuleman, Philip Vlummens, Angelo Maiolino, Breno Moreno de Gusmão, Carlos Eduardo Miguel, Edvan Crusoe, Fernanda Moura, Fernanda Seguro, Jandey Bigonha, Juliane Musacchio, Karla Zanella, Laura Garcia, Marcelo Eduardo Zanella Capra, Reijane Alves de Assis, Rosane Bittencourt, Vania Hungria, Walter Braga, Wolney Barreto, Christopher Venner, Donna Reece, Emilie Lemieux-Blanchard, Kevin Song, Michael Sebag, Selay Lam, Victor Zepeda, Haitao Zhang, Jianda Hu, Jin Lu, Juan Li, Songfu Jiang, Ting Niu, Wenming Chen, Xiaonong Chen, Zhen Cai, Zhou Fude, Maja Oelholm Vase, Morten Salomo, Niels Abildgaard, Alain Fuzibet, Anne-Marie Stoppa, Arnaud Jaccard, Bertrand Arnulf, Bruno Moulin, Bruno Royer, David Ghez, Denis Caillot, Dominique Chauveau, Franck Bridoux, Lauriane Clement-Filliatre, Lionel Karlin, Lotfi Benboubker, Mamoun Dib, Margaret Macro, Mohamad Mohty, Olivier Decaux, Olivier Hermine, Olivier Tournilhac, Philippe Moreau, Salomon Manier, Sylvain Choquet, Véronique Dorvaux, Alexander Carpinteiro, Axel Nogai, Britta Besemer, Christoph Roellig, Roland Fenk, Stefan Knop, Stefan Schönland, Timon Hansen, Argiris Symeonidis, Efstathios Kastritis, Gabor Mikala, Tamás Masszi, Zsolt Nagy, Celia Suriu, Hila Magen, Iuliana Vaxman, Lev Shvidel, Meir Preis, Moshe Gatt, Noa Lavi, Osnat Jarchowsky, Tamar Tadmor, Yael Cohen, Angelo Vacca, Giovanni Palladini, Mario Boccadoro, Maurizio Martelli, Maurizio Musso, Michele Cavo, Chihiro Shimazaki, Hiroyuki Takamatsu, Kazutaka Sunami, Kenshi Suzuki, Nagaaki Katoh, Shinsuke Iida, Takayuki Ikezoe, Tomoaki Fujisaki, Yuta Katayama, Chang Ki Min, Ho-Jin Shin, Jin Seok Kim, Jung Yong Hong, Ki Hyun Kim, Sung-Soo Yoon, Aline Ramirez, Alvaro Cabrera, Christian Ramos, David Gomez Almaguer, Deborah Martinez, Guillermo Ruiz, Helen Dayani Caballero, Juan Antonio Flores Jimenez, Annemiek Broijl, Laurens Nieuwenhuizen, Monique Minnema, Paula Ypma, Wilfried Roeloffzen, Dominik Dytfeld, Grzegorz Charlinski, Grzegorz Helbig, Krzysztof Jamroziak, Sebastian Grosicki, Wieslaw Jedrzejczak, Albert Oriol Rocafiguera, Elham Askari, Fernando Escalante Barrigon, Isabel Krsnik Castello, Javier De la Rubia Comos, Jesus Martin Sanchez, Joaquin Martinez Lopez, Jose Angel Hernandez Rivas, Luis Felipe Casado Montero, Maria Jesus Blanchard Rodriguez, Maria Teresa Cibeira Lopez, Maria Victoria Mateos Manteca, Marta Sonia Gonzalez Perez, Mercedes Gironella Mesa, Rafael Rios Tamayo, Ramon Lecumberri Villamediana, Ricarda Garcia Sanchez, Sunil Lakhwani, Yolanda Gonzalez, Hareth Nahi, Kristina Carlsson, Markus Hansson, Ulf-Henrik Mellqvist, Ali Unal, Burhan Ferhanoglu, Hayri Ozsan, Levent Undar, Mehmet Turgut, Mehmet Yilmaz, Meral Beksac, Muhlis Cem Ar, Muzaffer Demir, Sevgi Besisik, Ashutosh Wechalekar, Jamie Cavenagh, Jim Cavet, Mark Cook, Rachel Hall, Adam Waxman, Anuj Mahindra, Cesar Rodriguez Valdes, Christine Ye, Craig Reeder, Daphne Friedman, David Siegel, Divaya Bhutani, Edward Libby, Eva Medvedova, Frank Passero, Giada Bianchi, Giampaolo Talamo, Guido Tricot, Hans Lee, Heather Landau, Jan Moreb, Jason Valent, Jeffrey Matous, Jeffrey A Zonder, Jesus Berdeja, Jonathan Kaufman, Keith Stockerl-Goldstein, Keren Osman, Ketan Doshi, Kevin Barton, Larry Anderson, Manisha Bhutani, Mehmet Kocoglu, Michael Rosenzweig, Michael Schuster, Michaela Liedtke, Morie Gertz, Naresh Bumma, Natalie Callander, Raymond Comenzo, Robert Vescio, Roger Pearse, Sandy W Wong, Stacey A Goodman, Stefano Tarantolo, Taimur Sher, Tibor Kovacsovics, Tomer Mark, Vaishali Sanchorawala, William Bensinge

Importance of Baseline Prognostic Factors With Increasing Time Since Initiation of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: Collaborative Analysis of Cohorts of HIV-1-Infected Patients

Background: The extent to which the prognosis for AIDS and death of patients initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) continues to be affected by their characteristics at the time of initiation (baseline) is unclear. Methods: We analyzed data on 20,379 treatment-naive HIV-1- infected adults who started HAART in 1 of 12 cohort studies in Europe and North America (61,798 person-years of follow-up, 1844 AIDS events, and 1005 deaths). Results: Although baseline CD4 cell count became less prognostic with time, individuals with a baseline CD4 count 350 cells/μL (hazard ratio for AIDS = 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0 to 2.3; mortality hazard ratio = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.2 to 5.5, 4 to 6 years after starting HAART). Rates of AIDS were persistently higher in individuals who had experienced an AIDS event before starting HAART. Individuals with presumed transmission by means of injection drug use experienced substantially higher rates of AIDS and death than other individuals throughout follow-up (AIDS hazard ratio = 1.6, 95% CI: 0.8 to 3.0; mortality hazard ratio = 3.5, 95% CI: 2.2 to 5.5, 4 to 6 years after starting HAART). Conclusions: Compared with other patient groups, injection drug users and patients with advanced immunodeficiency at baseline experience substantially increased rates of AIDS and death up to 6 years after starting HAART