High pre-diagnosis inflammation-related risk score associated with decreased ovarian cancer survival

BACKGROUND: There is suggestive evidence that inflammation is related to ovarian cancer survival. However, more research is needed to identify inflammation-related factors that are associated with ovarian cancer survival and to determine their combined effects. METHODS: This analysis used pooled data on 8,147 women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. Pre-diagnosis inflammatory-related exposures of interest included alcohol use, aspirin use, other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, body mass index, environmental tobacco smoke exposure, history of pelvic inflammatory disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and endometriosis, menopausal hormone therapy use, physical inactivity, smoking status, and talc use. Using Cox proportional hazards (PH) models, the relationship between each exposure and survival was assessed in 50% of the data. A weighted inflammation-related risk score (IRRS) was developed and its association with survival was assessed using Cox PH models in the remaining 50% of the data. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant trend of increasing risk of death per quartile of the IRRS (HR=1.09, 95% CI 1.03-1.14). Women in the upper quartile of the IRRS had 31% higher death rate compared to the lowest quartile (95% CI 1.11-1.54). CONCLUSIONS: A higher pre-diagnosis IRRS was associated with increased mortality risk after an ovarian cancer diagnosis. Further investigation is warranted to evaluate whether post-diagnosis exposures are also associated with survival. IMPACT: Given that pre- and post-diagnosis exposures are often correlated and many are modifiable, our study results can ultimately motivate the development of behavioral recommendations to enhance survival among ovarian cancer patients

Non-VACTEIL-type anomalies are frequent in patients with esophageal atresia/tracheo-esophageal fistula and full or partial VACTERL association

BACKGROUND: The VACTERL association is the nonrandom co-occurrence of Vertebral anomalies, Anal atresia, Cardiovascular malformations, Tracheo-esophageal fistula (TEF) and/or Esophageal atresia (EA), Renal anomalies, and/or Limb-anomalies. The full phenotype of patients with EA/TEF and other anomalies of the VACTERL spectrum of defects association is not well described in the literature. METHODS: Data on patients with EA/TEF seen in two pediatric surgical centers in the Netherlands between January 1988 and August 2006 were evaluated for defects of the VACTERL spectrum as well as non-VACTERL-type defects. The presence of two or more defects of the VACTERL spectrum in addition to EA/TEF was the criterion for inclusion in this study. A detailed description was made of all defects. RESULTS: Of 463 patients with EA and/or TEF, 107 (23.1%) fulfilled the inclusion criterion, of which seventeen cases had a recognized etiology and were excluded, leaving 90 cases (19.4%) for analysis. Other than the esophagus and the trachea, the vertebrae/ribs and the cardiovascular system were most commonly affected (68.9 and 65.6%, respectively). Interestingly, 70% of cases had additional non-VACTERL-type defects, with high occurrences for single umbilical artery (20%), genital defects (23.3%), and respiratory tract anomalies (13.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Many patients with EA/TEF and at least two other defects of the VACTERL spectrum also display non-VACTERL-type congenital anomalies. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 82:92-97, 2008. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Assessing the effect of Faidherbia albida based land use systems on barley yield at field and regional scale in the highlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Faidherbia albida , Ecosystem-service, Land-use, Scaling, Barley productivity,