The Correlation between Rates of Cancer and Autism: An Exploratory Ecological Investigation

Autism is associated with high rates of genomic aberrations, including chromosomal rearrangements and de novo copy-number variations. These observations are reminiscent of cancer, a disease where genomic rearrangements also play a role. We undertook a correlative epidemiological study to explore the possibility that shared risk factors might exist for autism and specific types of cancer.To determine if significant correlations exist between the prevalence of autism and the incidence of cancer, we obtained and analyzed state-wide data reported by age and gender throughout the United States. Autism data were obtained from the U.S. Department of Education via the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (2000-2007, reported annually by age group) and cancer incidence data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1999-2005). IDEA data were further subdivided depending on the method used to diagnose autism (DSM IV or the Code of Federal Regulations, using strict or expanded criteria). Spearman rank correlations were calculated for all possible pairwise combinations of annual autism rates and the incidence of specific cancers. Following this, Bonferroni's correction was applied to significance values. Two independent methods for determining an overall combined p-value based on dependent correlations were obtained for each set of calculations. High correlations were found between autism rates and the incidence of in situ breast cancer (p < or = 10(-10), modified inverse chi square, n = 16) using data from states that adhere strictly to the Code of Federal Regulations for diagnosing autism. By contrast, few significant correlations were observed between autism prevalence and the incidence of 23 other female and 22 male cancers.These findings suggest that there may be an association between autism and specific forms of cancer

The Genetics of Endophenotypes of Neurofunction to Understand Schizophrenia (GENUS) consortium: A collaborative cognitive and neuroimaging genetics project

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia has a large genetic component, and the pathways from genes to illness manifestation are beginning to be identified. The Genetics of Endophenotypes of Neurofunction to Understand Schizophrenia (GENUS) Consortium aims to clarify the role of genetic variation in brain abnormalities underlying schizophrenia. This article describes the GENUS Consortium sample collection. METHODS: We identified existing samples collected for schizophrenia studies consisting of patients, controls, and/or individuals at familial high-risk (FHR) for schizophrenia. Samples had single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data or genomic DNA, clinical and demographic data, and neuropsychological and/or brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Data were subjected to quality control procedures at a central site. RESULTS: Sixteen research groups contributed data from 5199 psychosis patients, 4877 controls, and 725 FHR individuals. All participants have relevant demographic data and all patients have relevant clinical data. The sex ratio is 56.5% male and 43.5% female. Significant differences exist between diagnostic groups for premorbid and current IQ (both p10,000 participants. The breadth of data across clinical, genetic, neuropsychological, and MRI modalities provides an important opportunity for elucidating the genetic basis of neural processes underlying schizophrenia

The Changes of the Tumor Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression and the Density CD8+ Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes after Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Patients with Rectal Adenocarcinoma

Rectum adenocarcinoma is one of the most frequent tumour diseases in the Czech Republic. Therefore any progress in therapy or prevention of this disease can have a significant impact on mortality and morbidity of major amount of oncological patients. Within therapy the neoadjuvant concomitant radiochemotherapy or the sole radiotherapy is used before surgical resection in one third to half of all newly diagnosed cases. The goal is to achieve tumor downstaging and local relaps probability decrease. There is a large amount of processes on molecular and cellular level in organism reaction to neoplasia genesis, whose understanding can have a substantial impact on therapy's success rate or on therapy's efficiency prediction. One of these processes is angiogenesis induced by high production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). As per immunohistochemical studies VEGF is not expressed in typical colorectum mucous membrane. However it is strongly expressed in case of adenocarcinoma. Another important process of organism's malignancy response is tumour tissue infiltration by CD8+ T lymphocytes (TIL), which are one of the important components of cellular immunity against tumour and which significantly contribute to tumour cells elimination. Potential of CD8+ T lymphocytes is considerable not just in..

Impact of legislative changes on traffic accidents frequency in Czech Republic, 1990-2007

The theme of my thesis on the impact of legislative changes traffic accident rate in the CR in the period 1990-2007, I chose because of a particular socio-propletenosti legislative field rules and laws with the consequences of their existence in the form injured, permanently disabled or dead persons in the Czech roads. Their numbers reach values that are often mnohasetkrát greater than if many a seemingly dangerous grateful to the media problem. Every year comes Czech Republic of town with about a thousand inhabitants, and in most cases of working age who die on Czech roads. Tens of thousands of others must be longer or shorter time to heal consequences of these accidents. Many of them never fully recover. Certainly interesting to know whether changing laws and rules can be affect the amount of such tragedies, and of course best to lower values. From the simple premise that the mildest the consequences of the accident which happens, it is clear that direct the effort to reduce the number of accidents to prevent their formationplays. Looking back to the passed legislative changes relating to transport and for prevention programs, along with the history ofstatistics traffic accidents will give us a picture of what impact the changes should, and will give us guidance as to what further changes to implement for..