[Counseling on life style delivered during cancer secondary prevention practice: considerations after the SPRINT study experience in Florence, Mantua and Turin]. / Il counseling sugli stili di vita nell'ambito delle attività di prevenzione secondaria dei tumori: riflessioni dall'esperienza dello studio SPRINT a Firenze,Mantova e Torino.

In the short paper we report the results of a workshop on the feasibility to carried out a brief counselling on smoking cessation and physical activity to female smokers attending the Italian National Health System Cervical Cancer Screening Program. The considerations derived from the midwives' experience during the recruitment of women for the SPRINT study, an intervention trial designed in order to verify the effectiveness of a standard counselling intervention on smoking cessation delivered by trained midwives in a gender-specific setting, the outpatient cervical cancer screening visits.

The Pap smear screening as an occasion for smoking cessation and physical activity counselling: baseline characteristics of women involved in the SPRINT randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Gender-specific smoking cessation strategies have rarely been developed. Evidence of effectiveness of physical activity (PA) promotion and intervention in adjunct to smoking cessation programs is not strong. SPRINT study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate a counselling intervention on smoking cessation and PA delivered to women attending the Italian National Health System Cervical Cancer Screening Program. This paper presents study design and baseline characteristics of the study population. METHODS/DESIGN: Among women undergoing the Pap examination in three study centres (Florence, Turin, Mantua), participants were randomized to the smoking cessation counselling [S], the smoking cessation + PA counselling [S + PA], or the control [C] groups. The program under evaluation is a standard brief counselling on smoking cessation combined with a brief counselling on increasing PA, and was delivered in 2010. A questionnaire, administered before, after 6 months and 1 year from the intervention, was used to track behavioural changes in tobacco use and PA, and to record cessation rates in participants. DISCUSSION: Out of the 5,657 women undergoing the Pap examination, 1,100 participants (55% of smokers) were randomized in 1 of the 3 study groups (363 in the S, 366 in the S + PA and 371 in the C groups). The three arms did not differ on any demographic, PA, or tobacco-use characteristics. Recruited smokers were older, less educated than non-participant women, more motivated to quit (33% vs.9% in the Preparation stage, p < 0.001), smoked more cigarettes per day (12 vs.9, p < 0.001), and were more likely to have already done 1 or more quit attempts (64% vs.50%, p < 0.001). The approach of SPRINT study appeared suitable to enrol less educated women who usually smoke more and have more difficulties to quit. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN: ISRCTN52660565.

Serum testosterone levels and breast cancer recurrence.

Prospective studies show that high serum levels of androgens and estrogens are associated with increased incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer. The aim of the present analysis was to study the prognostic value of serum testosterone, estradiol and related factors in postmenopausal breast cancer patients. One hundred and ten patients without clinical recurrence were included in the study. After 5.5 years of follow-up, 31 patients developed distant metastasis (16), local relapse (4), or contralateral breast cancer (11). The risk of adverse events in relation to hormone level was examined by Cox' proportional hazard modeling, adjusting for hormone receptor status and stage at diagnosis. Body mass index and serum levels of testosterone, estradiol and glucose were significantly higher in patients who recurred than those who did not. The hazard ratios were 1.8 (95% CI = 0.5-6.3) for the middle and 7.2 (95% CI = 2.4-21.4) for the upper tertiles of baseline testosterone distribution. Other hormones had only minor influence on prognosis. High testosterone predicts breast cancer recurrence. Further studies are required to determine whether dietary or other medical intervention to reduce testosterone can reduce the recurrence of breast cancer.

A plant food-based diet modifies the serum beta-sitosterol concentration in hyperandrogenic postmenopausal women.

Plant sterols or phytosterols are common components of plant foods, especially plant oils, seeds and nuts, cereals and legumes. The most common phytosterols are campesterol, beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol. Phytosterols have anticarcinogenic properties. Previous studies have suggested that populations with low breast cancer incidence often consume diets high in phytosterols. The present study evaluated whether consumption of a plant food-based diet, low in animal fat, may increase serum phytosterol levels in postmenopausal women. One hundred and four women volunteers were randomized to dietary intervention or control groups. The dietary intervention included intensive dietary counseling to replace animal products with plant-based foods. Subjects in the dietary intervention group participated twice a week for 18 wk in workshops about the preparation and consumption of a plant food-based diet. The absolute change in serum total phytosterol concentration was greater in the dietary intervention group than in the control group. The percent change tended to differ between groups (P = 0.06). However, only for beta-sitosterol did the absolute and percent changes within a group differ significantly between groups (P = 0.0017). The decrease in serum total cholesterol in the dietary intervention group (-14%) was greater than that in the control group (-4%; P = 0.0005). The results of this study show that circulating levels of phytosterols can be affected by dietary modification. These findings indicate that phytosterols, in particular beta-sitosterol, can be used as biomarkers of exposure in observational studies or as compliance indicators in dietary intervention studies of cancer prevention.

Varicose veins of the lower limbs and venous capacitance in postmenopausal women: relationship with obesity.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between body mass index (BMI), venous capacitance, and clinical evidence of varicose veins after adjustment for sex hormones in postmenopausal women. METHODS: This study group of the DIANA (DIet and ANdrogens) project (a randomized controlled trial on the effect of some dietary changes on sex hormone pattern in women with elevated androgenic hormone levels in Italy) was comprised of 104 healthy volunteer postmenopausal women, aged 48 to 65 years. The main outcome measures were physical examination to determine the presence and severity of varicose veins and plethysmographic measurement of lower limb venous capacitance and outflow. RESULTS: Women in the upper quartile of BMI (>30 kg/m(2)) showed a positive association with clinical evidence of varicose veins (odds ration, 5.8; 95% CI, 1.2 to 28.2) after adjustment for age, estradiol, testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin. No association was found between BMI and plethysmographic measurements of venous parameters. CONCLUSION: Obesity is associated with clinical evidence of varicose veins independently from the influence of sex hormones in postmenopausal women and is not associated with venous capacitance. Increased body weight increases the risk of varicose veins.

[Personality traits of women participating in a breast cancer prevention trial]. / Tratti di personalità delle donne che aderiscono ai trial di prevenzione del carcinoma della mammella.

We have evaluated the psycho-social factors in women--during menopause with different biological characteristics--who participated in two extensive trials of breast cancer prevention: Diana1 and Tamoxifen. Through the use of a recognized personality test (MMPI, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), we observed 500 healthy women who agreed to or refused the health care proposal. The findings show that the women who accept chemical preparations or to modify their dietary habits present different personality traits from those who refuse to adhere. One should ask oneself if the lack of homogeneity of the samples with a different concentration of psycho-social factors can alter the efficacy of a cancer prevention program. During chemoprevention studies, in which a high compliance could bring about a redundancy of experience of sickness, in coherence with our goal of health protection, we think it is necessary to supply psycho-social support which tempers any experience of physical, psychological and inter-personal discomfort in the healthy women. The cognitive model of the personality traits could be programmed also for the compliance of mammographical screening. This model requires the training of health care professionals.