Anthropometric risk factors for ovarian cancer in the NIH-AARP diet and health study

OBJECTIVE Identifying potentially modifiable risk factors for ovarian cancer is essential for prevention because this cancer is predominantly detected at a late stage. Here, we estimated the relations of general adiposity and measures reflecting body fat distribution to the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. METHODS We ascertained 683 ovarian epithelial cancers (343 high-grade serous, 141 non-high grade serous) among 145,575 women, aged 50-72 years (median follow-up 12.6 years), from the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study. Using Cox models, we estimated confounder-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations of overall ovarian cancer, high-grade serous and non-high-grade serous carcinoma with body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, waist-height ratio, body adiposity index, body shape index, and abdominal volume index. RESULTS Anthropometric measures were unrelated to overall ovarian cancer, high-grade serous cancer, and non-high-grade serous cancer. For example, the HR for overall ovarian cancer per standard deviation increment of body mass index at baseline was 0.98 (95% CI 0.88-1.10). Similar associations were observed with measurements of body fat distribution. CONCLUSION These results do not indicate that adult adiposity is associated with ovarian cancer risk in post-menopausal women

Physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Numerous epidemiologic studies have examined the relation of physical activity or cardiorespiratory fitness to risk of cutaneous melanoma but the available evidence has not yet been quantified in a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA), we identified 3 cohort studies (N = 12,605 cases) and 5 case-control studies (N = 1,295 cases) of physical activity and melanoma incidence, and one cohort study (N = 49 cases) of cardiorespiratory fitness and melanoma risk. Results Cohort studies revealed a statistically significant positive association between high versus low physical activity and melanoma risk (RR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.16–1.40). In contrast, case-control studies yielded a statistically non-significant inverse risk estimate for physical activity and melanoma (RR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.63–1.14; P-difference = 0.02). The only available cohort study of cardiorespiratory fitness and melanoma risk reported a positive but statistically not significant association between the two (RR = 2.19, 95% CI = 0.99–4.96). Potential confounding by ultraviolet (UV) radiation-related risk factors was a major concern in cohort but not case-control studies. Conclusions It appears plausible that the positive relation of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness to melanoma observed in cohort studies is due to residual confounding by UV radiation-related risk factors. Impact Future prospective studies need to examine the association between physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and melanoma after detailed adjustment for UV radiation-related skin damage

Suicide risk and mortality among patients with cancer

Despite substantial progress in cancer therapy in recent decades, patients with cancer remain at high suicide risk. Data from individual studies have not been comprehensively quantified and specific risk factors are ill-defined. We assessed suicide mortality risk according to cancer prognosis, stage, time since diagnosis, gender, ethnicity, marital status, year of recruitment and geographic region. We searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL and Google Scholar for relevant articles up to February 2021. We used a random effects model, performed meta-regression meta-analysis and assessed heterogeneity and publication bias using I², funnel plots and Egger’s and Begg’s tests. We performed a systematic review including 62 studies and 46,952,813 patients. To avoid patient sample overlap, the meta-analysis was performed on 28 studies, involving 22,407,690 patients with cancer. Suicide mortality was significantly increased compared with the general population (standardized mortality ratio = 1.85, 95% confidence interval = 1.55–2.20). Risk was strongly related to cancer prognosis, cancer stage, time since diagnosis and geographic region. Patients with cancer, particularly those with specific risk factors, should be closely monitored for suicidality and need specialized care to reduce short- and long-term risks of suicide

Author Correction: Suicide risk and mortality among patients with cancer.

Correction to: Nature Medicine https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01745-y. Published online 28 March 2022. In the version of this article initially published, refs. 12 and 16 were duplicated as refs. 21 and 22, which have now been removed and the list renumbered. There were typographical errors in the Supplementary Information which are reflected in descriptions of the meta-analysis in the main text, as follows: the review included 47,035,065 patients with cancer (not 46,952,813, as stated previously), the number of whom died by suicide is 69,401 (not 69,298 as reported previously), encompassing 107,961,345 person-years of follow-up (not 107,691,796, as noted previously); the “Study population” section of the Results now reports 30 studies performed in the USA and 25 in Europe (not 31 and 24, respectively, as stated previously). The abstract and the “Study population,” “Sensitivity analyses using all 62 eligible studies” and “Assessment of publication bias” sections of the Results have been amended. The typographical errors in the Supplementary Information were corrected as follows: pages 6 and 12, Turaga et al., end-time of recruitment updated from 2015 to 2005; page 7, Patasius et al., standardized mortality ratio updated from 1.01 to 1.10; page 7, Levi et al., follow-up in person-years updated from 57,614 to 57,164; page 8, Alanee et al., number of suicide cases updated from 30 to 33; page 9, Osazuwa-Peters et al., study population count updated from 205,658 to 287,901; pages 7 and 11, Kaceniene et al., country of study updated from USA to Lithuania. The results of the metadata analysis remain unchanged. Updates have now been made in the HTML and PDF versions of the full text, Extended Data Figures 2, 4 and 5 and the Supplementary Information

Serum retinol and prostate cancer risk: a nested case-control study in the prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancer screening trial.

Vitamin A (retinol) plays a key role in the regulation of cell growth and differentiation, and has been studied as a potential chemopreventive agent for prostate cancer. However, findings from epidemiologic studies on the association between circulating retinol concentrations and the risk of prostate cancer are inconsistent. We examined whether serum concentrations of retinol were associated with the risk of prostate cancer in a nested case-control study using 692 prostate cancer cases and 844 matched controls from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. We estimated the risk of prostate cancer using multivariate, conditional logistic regression to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for overall prostate cancer and aggressive disease (stage III or IV or Gleason >7; n = 269). Serum retinol concentrations were not associated with overall prostate cancer risk; however, the highest versus lowest concentrations of serum retinol were associated with a 42% reduction in aggressive prostate cancer risk (P(trend) = 0.02), with the strongest inverse association for high-grade disease (Gleason sum >7; odds ratio, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.32-0.84; P(trend) = 0.01). Our results suggest that higher circulating concentrations of retinol are associated with a decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Further research is needed to better understand the significance of elevations in serum retinol concentrations and the possible biological mechanisms through which retinol affects prostate cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(4):1227-31)

Antimicrobial drug use and the risk of glioma: A case–control study

Background The use of antibiotics has been associated with increased risks of various cancers. Comprehensive information on the association of antibiotic use with the risk of glioma is lacking. Methods We performed a large case–control study based on the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD from the United Kingdom. We identified 4423 glioma cases recorded between 1995 and 2020 and matched them to controls (1:10) on the date of diagnosis (i.e., the index date), age, sex, general practice, and number of years of medical history in the database prior to the index date. We conducted conditional logistic regression analyses to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The exposures of interest were the use of antimicrobial drugs, including antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiprotozoal, and anthelmintic drugs with specific subclasses, where possible. Results We found no substantially increased risk of glioma after ever-use of antibiotics (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.03–1.24). The risk did not increase with the increasing number of prescriptions received or with increasing time from first use to cancer diagnosis. The use of polyenes was associated with a weakly decreased risk of glioma (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.67–0.96)