Lactose absorption in patients with ovarian cancer.

To determine whether lactase persistence might be related to ovarian cancer risk, in 1994-1995 the authors assessed the capacity to digest lactose by measuring breath hydrogen production after oral administration of lactose in 50 women with ovarian cancer and 100 healthy controls. All of the women came from Sassari (Sardinia), Italy, an area where the population has a high frequency of lactose malabsorption. Thirty percent of cases were lactose absorbers, as compared with 15% of controls. The odds ratio for ovarian cancer among lactose absorbers was 2.51 (95% confidence interval 1.10-5.68). These results provide some support for a role of lactose ingestion and galactose cytotoxicity in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer.

IDDM and early infant feeding. Sardinian case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: To further investigate the association between the type of feeding in infancy and the development of IDDM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We have carried out a case-control study in the area of Sassari (northern Sardinia, Italy), which is characterized by an ethnically homogenous population at high risk of IDDM. The study subjects comprised 100 IDDM patients and 100 control subjects, matched for sex and age and selected from children admitted at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Sassari. Diabetic children (53 boys, 47 girls) had been diagnosed between 1983 and 1994, and their age at diagnosis ranged between 1 and 15 years. Information on feeding patterns during the 1st year of life was collected through questionnaires administered to the mothers. The questionnaire was designed to evaluate the duration of complete or partial breast-feeding and the age at which dietary products containing cow's milk were introduced into the diet. RESULTS: A larger proportion of the diabetic children rather than the control children had been breast-fed, and the risk of IDDM among children who had not been breast-fed was below unity (odds ratio [OR] 0.41; 95% CI 0.19-0.91). No clear difference was observed between diabetic and control subjects in the duration of breast-feeding (medians: 3 and 2 months, respectively), even if, overall, the data suggested a slight increase in the risk of IDDM with longer duration of breast-feeding (OR 1.10; 95% CI 0.99-1.22 per month). Although a larger proportion of control children rather than diabetic children had been given cow's milk-derived formula and solid food before the age of 3 months, there was no time-risk relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Our data do not support the existence of a protective effect of breast-feeding on the risk of IDDM, nor do the data indicate that early exposure to cow's milk and dairy products has any influence on the development of IDDM in a high-risk population.

Lactose absorption in patients with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency with and without favism.

BACKGROUND: It has recently been suggested that primary lactase deficiency might have been selected for by malaria, as has been previously shown to occur for thalasaemia and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. AIMS: To test this hypothesis, the prevalence of primary lactase deficiency in G6PD deficient subjects and in controls from the area of Sassari (Northern Sardinia) was determined, which in the past was characterised by an intermediate malarial endemicity. SUBJECTS: 70 adult subjects with G6PD deficiency, 34 of whom had a past history of favism, and 50 age matched control subjects. METHODS: The capacity to absorb lactose was assessed by measuring breath hydrogen production after oral administration of lactose (50 g) by a gas chromatographic method. RESULTS: Twenty per cent of G6PD deficient subjects with a positive history of favism and 22% of G6PD deficient subjects without a positive history of favism were lactose absorbers compared with 14% lactose absorbers in the control group. The differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that the prevalence of primary lactase deficiency in the area of Sassari is relatively high, but comparable to that seen in the adult population from another area of southern Italy (Naples) where malaria was less endemic.