A prospective cohort study of red wine consumption and risk of prostate cancer

In light of recent, strong inverse findings between lifetime red wine consumption and prostate cancer among younger men, we revisited our previous cohort analysis to more thoroughly investigate red wine consumption and prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). In 1986, HPFS participants reported their average consumption of red wine, white wine, beer and liquor during the past year, and their change in alcohol consumption over the prior 10 years. Prostate cancer diagnoses were ascertained on each biennial questionnaire and confirmed by medical record review. Between 1986 and 2002, 3,348 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed among 45,433 eligible participants. Using men who did not consume red wine as the reference, no linear trend was observed between red wine consumption and prostate cancer in the full analytic cohort (p-trend = 0.57). Among men with unchanged alcohol consumption in the prior 10 years, and those additionally <65 years of age, slightly lower risks were observed for men who consumed 4 glasses/week, resulting in a lack of linear trend. These findings suggest that red wine does not contribute appreciably to the etiology of prostate cancer.     

Agreement for tumor grade of ovarian carcinoma: analysis of archival tissues from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results residual tissue repository

Background

Emerging data suggest that ovarian cancers differ by tumor grade. However, the reliability of microscopic grade from paraffin tissue in the general medical community and as reflected in population-based cancer registries is unknown.

Methods

We examined grade agreement between two gynecologic pathologists and the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Residual Tissue Repository (SEER). Grade agreement was assessed with percent observer agreement and kappa coefficients for 664 invasive ovarian carcinomas, using previously defined three-tier and two-tier grading systems. A random subset of ovarian carcinomas was selected to compare intra- and inter-pathologist agreement.

Results

Five hundred and eighty-six of SEER’s 664 tumors were confirmed invasive. Percent agreement was 49 % with fair kappa coefficient = 0.25 (95 % CI: 0.20–0.30) for the 664 tumors. Agreement improved slightly when restricted to the 586 confirmed invasive cancers; it was better for high grade than low grade tumors, for two-tier than three-tier grading systems, and within (66 %) than between study pathologists (43 %). Grade was not a robust independent predictor of ovarian cancer-specific survival.

Conclusions

Grade agreement was fair between SEER and study pathologists irrespective of grading system. Recorded grade in SEER should be used with caution and is probably not a reliable metric for ovarian cancer epidemiology.