Trends in colorectal cancer mortality in Europe : retrospective analysis of the WHO mortality database

ObjeCtive To examine changes in colorectal cancer mortality in 34 European countries between 1970 and 2011. Design Retrospective trend analysis. Data sOurCe World Health Organization mortality database. POPulatiOn Deaths from colorectal cancer between 1970 and 2011. Profound changes in screening and treatment efficiency took place after 1988; therefore, particular attention was paid to the evolution of colorectal cancer mortality in the subsequent period. Main OutCOMes Measures Time trends in rates of colorectal cancer mortality, using joinpoint regression analysis. Rates were age adjusted using the standard European population. results From 1989 to 2011, colorectal cancer mortality increased by a median of 6.0% for men and decreased by a median of 14.7% for women in the 34 European countries. Reductions in colorectal cancer mortality of more than 25% in men and 30% in women occurred in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, and Ireland. By contrast, mortality rates fell by less than 17% in the Netherlands and Sweden for both sexes. Over the same period, smaller or no declines occurred in most central European countries. Substantial mortality increases occurred in Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, and Romania for both sexes and in most eastern European countries for men. In countries with decreasing mortality, reductions were more important for women of all ages and men younger than 65 years. In the 27 European Union member states, colorectal cancer mortality fell by 13.0% in men and 27.0% in women, compared with corresponding reductions of 39.8% and 38.8% in the United States. COnClusiOn Over the past 40 years, there has been considerable disparity in the level of colorectal cancer mortality between European countries, as well as between men and women and age categories. Countries with the largest reductions in colorectal cancer mortality are characterised by better accessibility to screening services, especially endoscopic screening, and specialised care

Environmental and lifestyle risk factors of breast cancer in Malta-a retrospective case-control study

The funding for this research was obtained as part of IMaGenX – and ItaliaMalta co-financed EU project Operational Programme 2007–2013.AIM AND BACKGROUND: Environmental exposures are known to play a role in the development of cancer, including breast cancer. There are known associations of breast cancer with environmental factors such as sunlight exposure, diet and exercise and alcohol consumption as well as physiological factors. This study examines the prevalence of risk factors for breast cancer related to dietary intake, environment and lifestyle in the female population of Malta. Malta has had little research in this area, and therefore an exploratory study was carried out. METHODS: A retrospective case-control design was applied. Two hundred cases and 403 controls were included. Both cases and controls were subjects without a known family history for breast cancer. Controls were age-matched to cases in an age-decade category roughly at a 2:1 ratio. Interviews were carried out face-to-face using a questionnaire designed by Maltese and Sicilian researchers, encompassing various factors including diet, lifestyle, physiological factors and medical history. Breast cancer risk was then analysed using both univariate and multivariate analyses. For factors having a metric scale, the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare mean scores, while for categorical factors, the chi-square test was used to compare percentages between the case and control groups. Statistical modelling was carried out using binary logistic regression to relate the likelihood of breast cancer to over 50 risk/protective factors analysed collectively. RESULTS: Univariate analysis showed around 20 parameters of interest, 14 of which were statistically significant at a 0.05 level of significance. Logistic regression analysis identified 11 predictors of interest that were statistically significant. Tomato, coffee and canned meat consumption were associated with lower likelihood of breast cancer (OR = 0.988, 0.901, 0.892, respectively), whereas beans and cabbage consumption and low sodium salt were positively associated with breast cancer (OR = 1.045, 1.834, 1.028, respectively). Premenopausal status was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer compared to postmenopausal status (OR = 0.067). Not having experienced myocardial infarction was associated with lower odds of breast cancer (OR = 0.331). Increased height was also found to have a strong association with risk of breast cancer, with the odds of having breast cancer increasing for every centimetre increase in height (OR = 1.048). In terms of quantity, odds of having breast cancer were lower in those exposed to sunlight (OR = 0.891). The odds of having breast cancer were also lower in those not using the oral contraceptive pill (OR = 0.454). CONCLUSIONS: Various factors in this exploratory study were found to be associated with development of breast cancer. While causal conclusions cannot be made, tomato consumption is of particular interest, as these results corroborate findings found in other studies. A negative association of breast cancer with sunlight exposure and oral contraceptive pill use corroborates findings in other studies. Other associations with dietary intake can be explained by dietary changes. More robust studies in this area, including possible longitudinal studies, are warranted.peer-reviewe

Comparative transcriptome analysis of three oil palm fruit and seed tissues that differ in oil content and fatty acid composition

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) produces two oils of major economic importance, commonly referred to as palm oil and palm kernel oil, extracted from the mesocarp and the endosperm, respectively. While lauric acid predominates in endosperm oil, the major fatty acids (FAs) of mesocarp oil are palmitic and oleic acids. The oil palm embryo also stores oil, which contains a significant proportion of linoleic acid. In addition, the three tissues display high variation for oil content at maturity. To gain insight into the mechanisms that govern such differences in oil content and FA composition, tissue transcriptome and lipid composition were compared during development. The contribution of the cytosolic and plastidial glycolytic routes differed markedly between the mesocarp and seed tissues, but transcriptional patterns of genes involved in the conversion of sucrose to pyruvate were not related to variations for oil content. Accumulation of lauric acid relied on the dramatic up-regulation of a specialized acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase paralog and the concerted recruitment of specific isoforms of triacylglycerol assembly enzymes. Three paralogs of the WRINKLED1 (WRI1) transcription factor were identified, of which EgWRI1-1 and EgWRI1-2 were massively transcribed during oil deposition in the mesocarp and the endosperm, respectively. None of the three WRI1 paralogs were detected in the embryo. The transcription level of FA synthesis genes correlated with the amount of WRI1 transcripts and oil content. Changes in triacylglycerol content and FA composition of Nicotiana benthamiana leaves infiltrated with various combinations of WRI1 and FatB paralogs from oil palm validated functions inferred from transcriptome analysis