Quality of life of elderly persons with newly diagnosed cancer.

The aim was to investigate quality of life (QoL) in elderly persons newly diagnosed with cancer (65+ years) in relation to age, contact with the health-care system, ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL), hope, social network and support, and to identify which factors were associated with low QoL. The sample consisted of 101 patients (75 women and 26 men) newly diagnosed with cancer. EORTC QLQ-C30, Nowotny's Hope Scale, Katz ADL and the Interview Schedule for Social Interaction (ISSI) were used. The analysis was carried out in four age groups and revealed no significant differences in QoL. Compared with the other age groups, those of a high age (80+ years) more often lived alone, used more home-help service and had a smaller social network. Factors associated with low QoL were 'no other incomes than retirement pension', 'low level of hope' and 'lung cancer'. In addition, 'being told that the cancer disease has not come to an end', 'needing more help in activities of daily living', 'getting help from grown-up children' and 'needing help with PADL' were associated with low QoL. Those at risk of inferior QoL, that is, having poor economy, low level of hope and lung cancer need special attendance and specific interventions to improve QoL

Hormone replacement therapy after surgery for stage 1 or 2 cutaneous melanoma

A total of 206 women were followed for a minimum of 5 years after primary melanoma surgery to establish if hormone replacement therapy (HRT) adversely affected prognosis. In all, 123 had no HRT and 22 have died of melanoma; 83 had HRT for varying periods and one has died of melanoma. After controlling for known prognostic factors, we conclude that HRT after melanoma does not adversely affect prognosis

Sun exposure and melanoma risk at different latitudes: a pooled analysis of 5700 cases and 7216 controls

Background Melanoma risk is related to sun exposure; we have investigated risk variation by tumour site and latitude

A physical analysis of the Y chromosome shows no additional deletions, other than Gr/Gr, associated with testicular germ cell tumour

Testicular germ cell tumour (TGCT) is the most common malignancy in men aged 15–45 years. A small deletion on the Y chromosome known as ‘gr/gr' was shown to be associated with a two-fold increased risk of TGCT, increasing to three-fold in cases with a family history of TGCT. Additional deletions of the Y chromosome, known as AZFa, AZFb and AZFc, are described in patients with infertility; however, complete deletions of these regions have not been identified in TGCT patients. We screened the Y chromosome in a series of TGCT cases to evaluate if additional deletions of Y were implicated in TGCT susceptibility. Single copy Y chromosome STS markers with an average inter-marker spacing of 128 kb were examined in constitutional DNA of 271 index TGCT patients. Three markers showed evidence of deletions, sY1291, indicative of ‘gr/gr' (eight out of 271; 2.9%), Y-DAZ3 contained within ‘gr/gr' (21 out of 271; 7.7%) and a single deletion of the marker G66152 was identified in one TGCT case. No other markers demonstrated deletions. While several regions of the Y chromosome are known to be deleted and associated with infertility, our study provides no evidence to suggest regions of Y deletion, other than ‘gr/gr', are associated with susceptibility to TGCT in UK patients