Dietary Vitamin A and Breast Cancer Risk in Black Women: The African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk (AMBER) Consortium

Background: Studies in women of European descent showed an inverse association of dietary vitamin A (retinol and carotenoids) intake with breast cancer risks, mainly in premenopausal women. Objectives: We examined whether higher compared with lower levels of dietary vitamin A are associated with reduced breast cancer risks among Black women by estrogen receptor (ER) and menopausal statuses. Methods: In this pooled analysis, data were from 3564 breast cancer cases and 11,843 controls (mean ages = 56.4 and 56.3 years, respectively) in the African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk (AMBER) Consortium. Dietary intake was assessed by FFQs. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed to estimate ORs and 95% CIs for study-specific quintiles of total vitamin A equivalents and individual carotenoids, and a pooled OR was estimated by a random-effect model. Results: We observed an inverse association of total vitamin A equivalents with ER-positive breast cancer (quintiles 5 compared with 1: pooled OR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.67-1.00; P-trend = 0.045). The association was seen among premenopausal women (pooled OR: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.43-0.83; P-trend = 0.004), but not among postmenopausal women (pooled OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.77-1.28; P-trend = 0.78). Additionally, there were inverse associations of dietary β-carotene (quintiles 5 compared with 1: pooled OR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.51-0.95; P-trend = 0.08) and lutein (pooled OR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.45-0.87; P-trend = 0.020) with ER-positive breast cancer among premenopausal women. There was no evidence for an association of total vitamin A equivalents or individual carotenoids with ER-negative breast cancer, regardless of menopausal status. Conclusions: Our findings on dietary vitamin A and breast cancer risks in Black women are consistent with observations in women of European descent and advance the literature showing an inverse association for ER-positive disease

Parallel computing in information retrieval - An updated review

The progress of parallel computing in Information Retrieval (IR) is reviewed. In particular we stress the importance of the motivation in using parallel computing for Text Retrieval. We analyse parallel IR systems using a classification due to Rasmussen [1] and describe some parallel IR systems. We give a description of the retrieval models used in parallel Information Processing.. We describe areas of research which we believe are needed

Intrauterine devices and endometrial cancer risk : a pooled analysis of the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium

Intrauterine devices (IUDs), long-acting and reversible contraceptives, induce a number of immunological and biochemical changes in the uterine environment that could affect endometrial cancer (EC) risk. We addressed this relationship through a pooled analysis of data collected in the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium. We combined individual-level data from 4 cohort and 14 case-control studies, in total 8,801 EC cases and 15,357 controls. Using multivariable logistic regression, we estimated pooled odds ratios (pooled-ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for EC risk associated with ever use, type of device, ages at first and last use, duration of use and time since last use, stratified by study and adjusted for confounders. Ever use of IUDs was inversely related to EC risk (pooled-OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.74-0.90). Compared with never use, reduced risk of EC was observed for inert IUDs (pooled-OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.58-0.82), older age at first use (≥35 years pooled-OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.43-0.67), older age at last use (≥45 years pooled-OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.50-0.72), longer duration of use (≥10 years pooled-OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.52-0.71) and recent use (within 1 year of study entry pooled-OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.30-0.49). Future studies are needed to assess the respective roles of detection biases and biologic effects related to foreign body responses in the endometrium, heavier bleeding (and increased clearance of carcinogenic cells) and localized hormonal changes

Demographic, lifestyle, and genetic determinants of circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyVitamin D and Vitamin D-binding protein in African American and European American women

Background: Vitamin D may have anticancer activities. The high prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in African Americans (AAs) may be a contributing factor to the cancer health disparities between AAs and European Americans (EAs). Objectives: We compared concentrations of 25(OH)D and Vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP) in AA and EA women and investigated determinants of the Vitamin D-biomarker concentrations in both populations. Design: We used data and biospecimens from 909 AA and 847 EA healthy control subjects from the Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS) and the Women's Circle of Health Study (WCHS) in the African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Consortium.We measured plasma 25(OH)D and VDBP concentrations in all participants and genotyped 67 Vitamin D-related genes in AA women only. Results: AA women had lower 25(OH)D concentrations than did EA women (mean ± SD: 14.2 ± 8.1 compared with 21.1 ± 11.5 ng/mL, respectively; P0.05) in AAs, AA women who carried the allele of a functional single nucleotide polymorphism rs4988235, which has been previously associated with lactase expression and lactose tolerance, had higher dietary Vitamin D intake and higher measured 25(OH)D concentrations. Conclusions: AA women have lower concentrations of total 25(OH)D than EA women do, but both groups have similar VDBP concentrations, suggesting that there are lower concentrations of free 25(OH)D in AAs. Although demographic and lifestyle determinants of 25(OH)D concentrations are similar between the 2 groups, genetic determinants may be ethnicity specific. Larger studies in AAs will be needed to fully elucidate the underlying determinants of low Vitamin D concentrations in AA populations. Am J Clin Nutr 2017;105:1362-71

Cross-ancestry genome-wide association analysis of corneal thickness strengthens link between complex and Mendelian eye diseases

Central corneal thickness (CCT) is a highly heritable trait associated with complex eye diseases such as keratoconus and glaucoma. We perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis of CCT and identify 19 novel regions. In addition to adding support for known connective tissue-related pathways, pathway analyses uncover previously unreported gene sets. Remarkably, >20% of the CCT-loci are near or within Mendelian disorder genes. These included FBN1, ADAMTS2 and TGFB2 which associate with connective tissue disorders (Marfan, Ehlers-Danlos and Loeys-Dietz syndromes), and the LUM-DCN-KERA gene complex involved in myopia, corneal dystrophies and cornea plana. Using index CCT-increasing variants, we find a significant inverse correlation in effect sizes between CCT and keratoconus (r =-0.62, P = 5.30 × 10-5) but not between CCT and primary open-angle glaucoma (r =-0.17, P = 0.2). Our findings provide evidence for shared genetic influences between CCT and keratoconus, and implicate candidate genes acting in collagen and extracellular matrix regulation

Type I and II endometrial cancers: have they different risk factors?

PurposeEndometrial cancers have long been divided into estrogen-dependent type I and the less common clinically aggressive estrogen-independent type II. Little is known about risk factors for type II tumors because most studies lack sufficient cases to study these much less common tumors separately. We examined whether so-called classical endometrial cancer risk factors also influence the risk of type II tumors.Patients and MethodsIndividual-level data from 10 cohort and 14 case-control studies from the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium were pooled. A total of 14,069 endometrial cancer cases and 35,312 controls were included. We classified endometrioid (n = 7,246), adenocarcinoma not otherwise specified (n = 4,830), and adenocarcinoma with squamous differentiation (n = 777) as type I tumors and serous (n = 508) and mixed cell (n = 346) as type II tumors.ResultsParity, oral contraceptive use, cigarette smoking, age at menarche, and diabetes were associated with type I and type II tumors to similar extents. Body mass index, however, had a greater effect on type I tumors than on type II tumors: odds ratio (OR) per 2 kg/m(2) increase was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.19 to 1.21) for type I and 1.12 (95% CI, 1.09 to 1.14) for type II tumors (P-heterogeneity < .0001). Risk factor patterns for high-grade endometrioid tumors and type II tumors were similar.ConclusionThe results of this pooled analysis suggest that the two endometrial cancer types share many common etiologic factors. The etiology of type II tumors may, therefore, not be completely estrogen independent, as previously believed. (C) 2013 by American Society of Clinical Oncolog

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

Erratum: "A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo" (2021, ApJ, 909, 218)

[no abstract available