No association between circulating concentrations of vitamin D and risk of lung cancer: An analysis in 20 prospective studies in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3)

Background: There is observational evidence suggesting that high vitamin D concentrations may protect against lung cancer. To investigate this hypothesis in detail, we measured circulating vitamin D concentrations in pre-diagnostic blood from 20 cohorts participating in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3). Patients and methods: The study included 5,313 lung cancer cases and 5,313 controls selected from. Blood samples for the cases were collected, on average, 5 years prior to lung cancer diagnosis. Controls were individually matched to the cases by cohort, sex, age, race/ethnicity, date of blood collection, and smoking status in 5 categories. Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was used to separately analyze 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 (25(OH)D2) and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) and their concentrations were combined to give an overall measure of 25(OH)D. We used conditional logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for 25(OH)D as both a continuous and categorical variable. Results: Overall, no apparent association between 25(OH)D and risk of lung cancer was observed (multivariable adjusted OR for a doubling in concentration: 0.98, 95% confidence interval: 0.91, 1.06). Similarly, we found no clear evidence of interaction by cohort, sex, age, smoking status, or histology. Conclusion: This study did not support an association between vitamin D concentrations and lung cancer ris

The one belt and one road (OBOR) initiative: reconceptualisation of state capitalism vis-à-vis remapping of global governance?

China is emerging as an economic powerhouse with the globalisation of the world economy. The country takes proactive steps to deepen its global engagement through new initiatives, such as One Belt, One Road (OBOR). It offers good evidence of China’s mercantilist efforts to derive political and geostrategic leverage from the OBOR-related projects. The initiative serves as a key indicator of whether China is primarily to satisfy its national interests or whether it seeks to create a win-win Eurasia. No ready formula can suffice to explain the cross-cutting economic and political factors at play. Arguably, the OBOR initiative appears to be a combination of geopolitical and economic strategies to achieve China’s multiple strategies. It all comes down to whether China could be able to write global governance rules via the OBOR initiatives