Healthy lifestyle index and risk of gastric adenocarcinoma in the EPIC cohort study

Several modifiable lifestyle factors, including smoking, alcohol, certain dietary factors and weight are independently associated with gastric cancer (GC); however, their combined impact on GC risk is unknown. We constructed a healthy lifestyle index to investigate the joint influence of these behaviors on GC risk within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. The analysis included 461,550 participants (662 first incident GC cases) with a mean follow‐up of 11.4 years. A healthy lifestyle index was constructed, assigning 1 point for each healthy behavior related to smoking status, alcohol consumption and diet quality (represented by the Mediterranean diet) for assessing overall GC and also body mass index for cardia GC and 0 points otherwise. Risk of GC was calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression models while adjusting for relevant confounders. The highest versus lowest score in the healthy lifestyle index was associated with a significant lower risk of GC, by 51% overall (HR 0.49 95% CI 0.35, 0.70), by 77% for cardia GC (HR 0.23 95% CI 0.08, 0.68) and by 47% for noncardia GC (HR 0.53 (95% CI 0.32, 0.87), p‐trends<0.001. Population attributable risk calculations showed that 18.8% of all GC and 62.4% of cardia GC cases could have been prevented if participants in this population had followed the healthy lifestyle behaviors of this index. Adopting several healthy lifestyle behaviors including not smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, eating a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight is associated with a large decreased risk of GC.     

Preliminary results of a mass screening program for colorectal cancer

The Digestive Tumours Registry of Burgundy set up a study to assess acceptability and results of colorectal cancers screening using the Hemoccult test. A total of 95,000 people, aged 45 to 74, were included, 55,000 in 1988 and 40,000 in 1989. The aim of this paper is to report the results of the first screening process in the population tested from January to July 1988, i.e. 27,421 subjects. Information on colorectal cancer was mailed to all homes in the screening areas and a news campaign was organized. During the first 4 months, the general practitioners (GPs) either prescribed the test which was then reimbursed (Autun area), or gave it free to their patients (other areas). After that phase, the test was mailed to all subjects who had not consulted their GP, and a second letter was sent 1 month later when the test had not been sent back. A total of 14,603 subjects performed the Hemoccult test (53.3 percent). Acceptability was higher in those areas there the test was initially given free by the GPs (57.3 percent) than in those where it was prescribed (40.0 percent). Acceptability was higher in women (55.8 percent) than in men (50.6 percent). A total of 57.8 percent of the performed tests were done during the medical offer phase, 29.1 percent after mailing and 13.1 percent after the recall letter. There was a positive test in 340 subjects (2.3 percent) and 288 (84.7 percent) had colonic investigations, a colonoscopy in 99 percent of the cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Diagnostic accuracy of serum hepcidin for iron deficiency in critically ill patients with anemia

Purpose  

Inflammation-induced anemia is frequent among critically ill patients and can be aggravated by true iron deficiency (ID) resulting from blood losses. The serum hepcidin level controls the availability of iron for erythropoiesis, and its determination offers new perspectives for the diagnosis of ID in the presence of inflammation. We conducted a prospective observational study to determine the cutoff value and diagnostic accuracy of hepcidin levels for detecting ID in critically ill anemic patients.     

A prospective evaluation of plasma polyphenol levels and colon cancer risk

Polyphenols have been shown to exert biological activity in experimental models of colon cancer; however, human data linking specific polyphenols to colon cancer is limited. We assessed the relationship between pre‐diagnostic plasma polyphenols and colon cancer risk in a case–control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Using high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, we measured concentrations of 35 polyphenols in plasma from 809 incident colon cancer cases and 809 matched controls. We used multivariable adjusted conditional logistic regression models that included established colon cancer risk factors. The false discovery rate (q_values) was computed to control for multiple comparisons. All statistical tests were two‐sided. After false discovery rate correction and in continuous log₂‐transformed multivariable models, equol (odds ratio [OR] per log₂‐value, 0.86, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.79–0.93; q_value = 0.01) and homovanillic acid (OR per log₂‐value, 1.46, 95% CI = 1.16–1.84; q_value = 0.02) were associated with colon cancer risk. Comparing extreme fifths, equol concentrations were inversely associated with colon cancer risk (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.41–0.91, p_trend = 0.003), while homovanillic acid concentrations were positively associated with colon cancer development (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.17–2.53, p_trend < 0.0001). No heterogeneity for these associations was observed by sex and across other colon cancer risk factors. The remaining polyphenols were not associated with colon cancer risk. Higher equol concentrations were associated with lower risk, and higher homovanillic acid concentrations were associated with greater risk of colon cancer. These findings support a potential role for specific polyphenols in colon tumorigenesis.     

Adenoma--carcinoma sequence or "de novo" carcinogenesis? A study of adenomatous remnants in a population-based series of large bowel cancers.

Although it is well known that colorectal cancers can arise on a preexisting adenoma or de novo, the relative importance of these two pathways is still highly controversial. The authors studied the proportion of cancers with adenomatous remnants in a nonselected population-based series of 1630 resected colorectal cancers, so that they could estimate by subsite the importance of the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Four factors appeared to be related independently to the presence of adenomatous tissue within cancers in a multiple logistic model: tumor extension, growth pattern, location, and size. It appeared that infiltrating and ulcero-infiltrating tumors, which represented 39.8% of all resected colorectal cancers, very rarely displayed adenomatous tissue (0.5%), whereas it was more common in fungating and ulcero-fungating cancers (25.8%; P less than 0.001). In these exophytic cancers, the presence of adenomatous tissue was related very closely to the tumor size and extension, and it was seen in as many as 83% of small cancers (less than 2 cm) limited to the mucosa or submucosa. Right colon cancer showed consistently fewer adenomatous remnants than left colon or rectal cancer. These figures suggest that there are roughly two types of colorectal cancers, one of the infiltrating or ulcero-infiltrating type, which usually would arise de novo and account for approximately 40% of all colorectal cancer cases, and the exophytic type, which would mainly follow an adenoma-carcinoma sequence, although some might be de novo cancers, in particular in the right colon.     

Colon cancer in the elderly: evidence for major improvements in health care and survival.

Time trends in therapeutic approaches and in the prognosis of colon cancer for patients aged 75 years and above have been investigated in comparison with corresponding trends for younger patients using a population-based series of 2089 colon cancer patients diagnosed between 1976 and 1990 in the Côte-d''Or area (478,000 inhabitants), Burgundy, France. Significant progress has been achieved in the management of patients with colon cancer in both age groups, but trends have been more noticeable in patients aged 75 years and above. In the elderly, the proportion of cancers limited to the digestive tract wall showed a 3-year average increase of 2.8% (P = 0.02) and the frequency of curative surgery an average increase of 8.6% (P < 0.001), so that it was performed in 80% of cases in the last 3-year period. Operative mortality decreased by 2.5% between 3-year periods (P < 0.004). Crude 5-year survival rates in elderly patients increased from 15% in the 1976-78 period to 29% in the 1985-87 period (P < 0.001), the corresponding figures being 36% and 44% (P > 0.10) in younger patients.     

Multiple colorectal cancers. A population based study]

Data from the Registry of Digestive Cancers in the C?te-d'Or (France) concerning 2,174 colorectal cancers diagnosed between January 1, 1976 and December 31, 1985, and followed through December 31, 1987 enabled us to study the risk of a second synchronous or metachronous intestinal cancer occurring in a given population. Several simultaneous cancers were seen in 59 patients i.e. 2.8 per cent of cases. Diagnosis was made during the initial diagnostic phase in only 32 per cent of cases. Simultaneous cancers occurred preferably on the same colonic segment (kappa = 0.4) and the distribution of the principal tumour did not differ from that of the cancers occurring alone. When polyps were associated with the cancer, the risk of discovering a second synchronous lesion was multiplied by 3.8. Survival in single or multiple synchronous lesions was identical for the same cancer stage. Twenty cases of second metachronous cancers occurred during follow-up of a first colorectal cancer, the relative risk (RR) compared to the C?te-d'Or population was 1.4 (NS). The risk was significantly high for Dukes' stage A tumours (RR = 2.9; P less than 0.01), with an exophytic appearance (RR = 2.1; P less than 0.05) or with adenomatous remnants (RR = 3.4; P less than 0.01). These data suggest that complete examination of the colon should be performed when the diagnostic of colorectal cancer is made to look for an associated cancer or polyps. Follow-up surveillance should address mainly patients with Dukes' stage A or Dukes' stage B carcinoma with an exophytic appearance or adenomatous remnants.