Hormonal risk factors and invasive epithelial ovarian cancer risk by parity.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that several ovarian cancer risk factors differ by parity status, but these findings have not been confirmed. We evaluated whether known risk factors of ovarian cancer differ between nulliparous and parous women using data from two large prospective cohorts. METHODS: Data from the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial were combined for this analysis. Cox regression models were used to estimate associations with ovarian cancer risk. Risk heterogeneity by parity status was assessed using likelihood-ratio tests. RESULTS: Among the 125 437 women included in the analysis, there were 16 589 (13%) nulliparous women and 108 848 (87%) parous women. Of the 623 women diagnosed with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer, 102 (16%) were nulliparous and 521 (84%) were parous. While parity reduced ovarian cancer risk, no differences were found for other risk factors by parity. Among ever users of hormone therapy, body mass index suggestively increased the risk of ovarian cancer by 1.5-fold in nulliparous but not parous women (P-heterogeneity=0.08). CONCLUSION: While nulliparous women have higher ovarian cancer risk than parous women, our findings suggest that the relative effects of most other risk factors do not differ by parity.

Circulating levels of immune and inflammatory markers and long versus short survival in early-stage lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Some patients diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer and treated according to standard care survive for only a short period of time, while others survive for years for reasons that are not well understood. Associations between markers of inflammation and survival from lung cancer have been observed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we investigate whether circulating levels of 77 inflammatory markers are associated with long versus short survival in stage I and II lung cancer. Patients who had survived either <79 weeks (~1.5 years) (short survivors, SS) or >156 weeks (3 years) (long survivors, LS) were selected from a retrospective population-based study. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The false discovery rate was calculated to adjust for multiple testing. RESULTS: A total of 157 LS and 84 SS were included in this analysis. Thirteen markers had adjusted OR on the order of 2- to 5-fold when comparing the upper and lower quartiles with regard to the odds of short survival versus long. Chemokine CCL15 [chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 15] was the most significant marker associated with increased odds of short survival (ORs = 4.93; 95% CI 1.90-12.8; q-value: 0.042). Smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were not associated with marker levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide some evidence that deregulation of inflammatory responses may play a role in the survival of early-stage lung cancer. These findings will require confirmation in future studies.