Personal comorbidities and their subsequent risks for liver,gallbladder and bile duct cancers

Many environmental risk factors for hepatobiliary cancers are known but whether they are associated with specific cancer types is unclear. We present here a novel approach of assessing standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of previously diagnosed comorbidities for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), gallbladder cancer (GBC), cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and ampullary cancer. The 13 comorbidities included alcohol and nonalcohol related liver disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gallstone disease, viral and other kinds of hepatitis, infection of bile ducts, hepatic and other autoimmune diseases, obesity and diabetes. Patients were identified from the Swedish Inpatient Register from 1987 to 2018, and their cancers were followed from 1997 onwards. SIRs for HCC were 80 to 100 in men and women diagnosed with hepatitis C virus and they were also >10 in patients diagnosed with hepatitis B virus, other kind of hepatitis, hepatic autoimmune disease and nonalcohol related liver disease. Many of these risks, as well as alcohol related liver disease, were either specific to HCC or were shared with intrahepatic CCA. For GBC, CCA and ampullary cancer infection of bile ducts was the main risk factor. Gallstone disease, nonhepatic autoimmune diseases and diabetes were associated with all hepatobiliary cancers. The limitations of the study include inability to cover some rare risk factors and limited follow-up time. Many of the considered comorbidities are characterized by chronic inflammation and/or overt immune disturbance in autoimmune diseases. The results suggest that local chronic inflammation and a related immune disturbance is the carcinogenic trigger for all these cancers.     

Perceived barriers to physical activity during the 2nd lockdown in a northeastern state of Brazil

Sport Sciences for Health - The practice of physical activity has been recommended during the pandemic period of COVID-19 as a way of preventing the worsening of physical and mental health. After...     

Use and Applicability of the Gail Model to Calculate Breast Cancer Risk: A Scoping Review

Objective: To perform a scoping review of the applicability of the Gail model in different countries for different ethnicities. Methods: The review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and search strategies based on the PICOS approach. The reviewed articles were included if they were published between 2013 and 2018 in English, Portuguese, or Spanish; were original articles available in full online; and described the use of the Gail model. The PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science data bases were searched. Results: A total of 38 articles eligible for analysis were identified, of which 16 used the Gail model to assess breast cancer risk in women, eight analyzed the applicability of this tool in their population, seven compared the tool and/or modified it according to the specific risk factors of their population, and seven cited the model in determining eligibility for chemoprevention. Conclusion: The Gail model has different applicabilities Greater effectiveness and breast cancer risk are found in developed countries.     

How is the quality of the available evidence on molar-incisor hypomineralization treatment? An overview of systematic reviews

Clinical Oral Investigations - This overview analyzed the quality of the systematic reviews (SRs) available on treatments for molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH). Six electronic databases were...     

Functional estrogen receptor signal transduction pathway activity and antihormonal therapy response in low-grade ovarian carcinoma

Background

Advanced low-grade ovarian carcinoma (LGOC) is difficult to treat. In several studies, high estrogen receptor (ER) protein expression was observed in patients with LGOC, which suggests that antihormonal therapy (AHT) is a treatment option. However, only a subgroup of patients respond to AHT, and this response cannot be adequately predicted by currently used immunohistochemistry (IHC). A possible explanation is that IHC only takes the ligand, but not the activity, of the whole signal transduction pathway (STP) into account. Therefore, in this study, the authors assessed whether functional STP activity can be an alternative tool to predict response to AHT in LGOC.

Methods

Tumor tissue samples were obtained from patients with primary or recurrent LGOC who subsequently received AHT. Histoscores of ER and progesterone receptor (PR) were determined. In addition, STP activity of the ER STP and of six other STPs known to play a role in ovarian cancer was assessed and compared with the STP activity of healthy postmenopausal fallopian tube epithelium.

Results

Patients who had normal ER STP activity had a progression-free survival (PFS) of 16.1 months. This was significantly shorter in patients who had low and very high ER STP activity, with a median PFS of 6.0 and 2.1 months, respectively (p < .001). Unlike ER histoscores, PR histoscores were strongly correlated to the ER STP activity and thus to PFS.

Conclusions

Aberrant low and very high functional ER STP activity and low PR histoscores in patients with LGOC indicate decreased response to AHT. ER IHC is not representative of functional ER STP activity and is not related to PFS.