Dietary patterns during high school and risk of colorectal adenoma in a cohort of middle-aged women

Adolescent diet may be etiologically relevant for later risk of colorectal adenoma, a precursor of colorectal cancer. We aimed to examine associations between adolescent dietary patterns (derived using factor analysis) and risk of colorectal adenoma in middle adulthood. We analyzed data from 17,221 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study II, who had completed a validated high school (HS) food frequency questionnaire in 1998 when they were 34-51 years old, and had subsequently undergone at least one lower bowel endoscopy. Between 1998 and 2007, 1,299 women were diagnosed with at least one colorectal adenoma. In multivariable models adjusted for adult dietary patterns, a higher "prudent" pattern during HS, characterized by high consumption of vegetables, fruit and fish was associated with a statistically significantly lower risk of rectal (odds ratio [OR] highest vs. lowest quintile, 0.45, 95% CI 0.27-0.75, p-trend=0.005), but not colon adenomas. A higher "Western" pattern during HS, characterized by high consumption of desserts and sweets, snack foods and red and processed meat, was significantly associated with rectal (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.12-2.85, p-trend=0.005) and advanced (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.07-2.33, p-trend=0.08), but not associated with colon or non-advanced adenomas. This study suggests that overall eating patterns during high school may influence later risk of rectal and advanced adenoma, independent of adult diet. Our results support the hypothesis that diet during early life may influence colorectal carcinogenesis

Sexual violence against women and children in Chinese societies

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reported patterns of sexual violence against women and children in China. It reviews the prevalence of and risk factors for various types of sexual violence and discusses community knowledge and perceptions of these violent acts. It also critically examines three major problems of sexual violence research in China. First, the diversity of findings and study methods reported by surveys and criminal reports reflects the problems in obtaining accurate figures on the scope of the problem. Second, precautions must be taken in reading studies on Chinese culture-specific risk factors for domestic violence. Third, the study of culture-specific factors should not focus solely on cultural factors in a vacuum but rather, should examine traditional culture in the context of modern societies and consensus international standards of human rights. Recommendations for future research are also discussed. © 2009 Sage Publications.postprin

Activating mutations of STAT5B and STAT3 in lymphomas derived from γδ-T or NK cells

Lymphomas arising from NK or γδ-T cells are very aggressive diseases and little is known regarding their pathogenesis. Here we report frequent activating mutations of STAT3 and STAT5B in NK/T-cell lymphomas (n=51), γδ-T-cell lymphomas (n=43) and their cell lines (n=9) through next generation and/or Sanger sequencing. STAT5B N642H is particularly frequent in all forms of γδ-T-cell lymphomas. STAT3 and STAT5B mutations are associated with increased phosphorylated protein and a growth advantage to transduced cell lines or normal NK cells. Growth-promoting activity of the mutants can be partially inhibited by a JAK1/2 inhibitor. Molecular modelling and surface plasmon resonance measurements of the N642H mutant indicate a marked increase in binding affinity of the phosphotyrosine-Y699 with the mutant histidine. This is associated with the prolonged persistence of the mutant phosphoSTAT5B and marked increase of binding to target sites. Our findings suggest that JAK-STAT pathway inhibition may represent a therapeutic strategy. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Dairy intake during adolescence and risk of colorectal adenoma later in life

BACKGROUND: Higher dairy intake during adulthood has been associated with lower colorectal cancer risk. As colorectal carcinogenesis spans several decades, we hypothesised that higher dairy intake during adolescence is associated with lower risk of colorectal adenoma, a colorectal cancer precursor. METHODS: In 27,196 females from the Nurses’ Health Study 2, aged 25–42 years at recruitment (1989), who had completed a validated high school diet questionnaire in 1998 and undergone at least one lower bowel endoscopy between 1998 and 2011, logistic regression for clustered data was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Colorectal adenomas were diagnosed in 2239 women. Dairy consumption during adolescence was not associated with colorectal adenoma risk (OR highest vs. lowest [≥4 vs. ≤1.42 servings/day] quintile [95% CI] 0.94 [0.80, 1.11]). By anatomical site, higher adolescent dairy intake was associated with lower rectal (0.63 [0.42, 0.95]), but not proximal (1.01 [0.80, 1.28]) or distal (0.97 [0.76, 1.24]) colon adenoma risk. An inverse association was observed with histologically advanced (0.72 [0.51, 1.00]) but not non-advanced (1.07 [0.86, 1.33]) adenoma. CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort of younger women, higher adolescent dairy intake was associated with lower rectal and advanced adenoma risk later in life

A novel patient-derived tumorgraft model with TRAF1-ALK anaplastic large-cell lymphoma translocation.

Although anaplastic large-cell lymphomas (ALCL) carrying anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) have a relatively good prognosis, aggressive forms exist. We have identified a novel translocation, causing the fusion of the TRAF1 and ALK genes, in one patient who presented with a leukemic ALK+ ALCL (ALCL-11). To uncover the mechanisms leading to high-grade ALCL, we developed a human patient-derived tumorgraft (hPDT) line. Molecular characterization of primary and PDT cells demonstrated the activation of ALK and nuclear factor kB (NFkB) pathways. Genomic studies of ALCL-11 showed the TP53 loss and the in vivo subclonal expansion of lymphoma cells, lacking PRDM1/Blimp1 and carrying c-MYC gene amplification. The treatment with proteasome inhibitors of TRAF1-ALK cells led to the downregulation of p50/p52 and lymphoma growth inhibition. Moreover, a NFkB gene set classifier stratified ALCL in distinct subsets with different clinical outcome. Although a selective ALK inhibitor (CEP28122) resulted in a significant clinical response of hPDT mice, nevertheless the disease could not be eradicated. These data indicate that the activation of NFkB signaling contributes to the neoplastic phenotype of TRAF1-ALK ALCL. ALCL hPDTs are invaluable tools to validate the role of druggable molecules, predict therapeutic responses and implement patient specific therapies

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for the associated production of a b quark and a neutral supersymmetric Higgs boson which decays to tau pairs

We report results from a search for production of a neutral Higgs boson in association with a $b$ quark. We search for Higgs decays to $\tau$ pairs with one $\tau$ subsequently decaying to a muon and the other to hadrons. The data correspond to 2.7fb$^{-1}$ of \ppbar collisions recorded by the D0 detector at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$TeV. The data are found to be consistent with background predictions. The result allows us to exclude a significant region of parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric model.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Sugar-sweetened beverage and sugar intake during adolescence and risk of colorectal cancer precursors: a large prospective U.S. cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations of adolescent sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) and sugar intake with risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) precursors. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Nurses' Health Study II (1998-2015), United States. PARTICIPANTS: 33106 women who completed a validated high school food frequency questionnaire about adolescent diet in 1998 and underwent lower gastrointestinal endoscopy between 1999 and 2015. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incident CRC precursors confirmed by medical record review. RESULTS: During follow-up, 2909 conventional adenoma, 1082 high-risk adenoma (≥1 cm in size, villous, high-grade dysplasia, or number ≥2), and 2355 serrated lesions were identified. Independent of adult intake, adolescent SSB and sugar intake was positively associated with risk of total and high-risk adenoma. Comparing ≥2 servings/day v <1 serving/week of SSB intake, multivariable odds ratios were 1.21 (95% confidence interval 1.00 to 1.47) for total and 1.21 (0.88 to 1.65) for high-risk adenoma. Per each 5% increment in calorie/day of total fructose intake, odds ratios were 1.17 (1.05 to 1.31) for total and 1.36 (1.14 to 1.62) for high-risk adenoma. By subsite, odds ratios were 1.25 (0.99 to 1.58) for proximal, 1.44 (1.12 to 1.84) for distal, and 1.74 (1.19 to 2.54) for rectal high-risk adenoma. Positive associations were stronger among women with low adolescent fruit, vegetable, or fiber intake. Among women with low fruit intake (<1.3 servings/day), odds ratios of total adenoma were 1.33 (1.11 to 1.59) for SSBs (≥1 serving/day v <1 serving/week) and 1.51 (1.26 to 1.82) for the highest quintile of total fructose (P≤0.024 for interaction). Neither SSB nor sugar intake during adolescence was associated with risk of serrated lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Independent of adult intake, adolescent SSB and sugar intake was positively associated with colorectal adenoma, especially high-risk rectal adenoma. Our findings suggest that adolescence may be a critical developmental period of enhanced susceptibility to high sugar intake, possibly promoting precancerous lesions of CRC arising through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence