• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4987-4991
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• 2015

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the association of serum isoflavones, adiponectin, and insulin levels with ovarian cancer risk. Materials and Methods: We gathered cases with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer at Sapporo Medical University Hospital from October 2010 to September 2012. Potential controls were recruited from female inpatients without any history of cancer or diabetes mellitus in different wards of the same hospital over the same period of time. Serum isoflavones, adiponectin, and insulin levels were measured in order to estimate associations with ovarian cancer risk in a case-control study. Data from 71 cases and 80 controls were analyzed with a logistic regression model adjusting for known risk factors. Results: A significant reduction in ovarian cancer risk was observed for the high tertile of serum daidzein level versus the low ($P_{trend}<0.001$). A significant reduction in ovarian cancer risk was also observed for the high tertile of serum glycitein level versus the low ($P_{trend}=0.005$). Furthermore, a significant reduction in ovarian cancer risk was observed for the high tertile of serum adiponectin level versus the low ($P_{trend}=0.004$). Conversely, serum insulin level showed significantly elevated risk for ovarian cancer with the high tertile versus the low $P_{trend}<0.001$). Conclusions: Decreased serum isoflavones levels, such as those for daidzein and glycitein, decreased serum adiponectin levels, and increased serum insulin levels could be shown to be associated with elevated risk of ovarian cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8657-8660
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• 2014

Background: Yanting is one of high risk areas for esophageal cancer and the screening program was therefore initiated there. This study was aimed to investigate the dietary behaviors on the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), among the individuals with normal and abnormal esophagus mucosa. Materials and Methods: A frequency matched case-controls study was proposed to estimate the different distribution of dietary behavior between individuals of control, esophagitis and cancer groups. Cancer cases were selected from hospitals. Esophagitis cases and controls were selected from screening population for ESCC. Health workers collected data for 1 year prior to interview, in terms of length of finishing a meal, temperature of eaten food and interval between water boiling and drinking. Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis tests and unconditional logistic regression model were used to estimate differences and associations between groups. Results: Compared with controls, length of finishing a meal ${\geq}15mins$ was related to a reduced OR for cancer (OR=0.46, 95%CI, 0.22-0.97) and even compared with cases of esophagitis, the OR of cancer was reduced to 0.30 (95%CI, 0.13-0.72). The OR for often eating food at a high temperature was 2.48 (95%CI 1.06, 5.82) for ESCC as compared with controls. Interval between water boiling and drinking of ${\geq}10mins$ was associated with lower risk of cancer: the OR was 0.18 compared with controls and 0.49 with esophagitis cases (p<0.05). Conclusions: Length of eating food ${\geq}15mins$ and interval between water boiling and drinking ${\geq}10mins$ are potentially related to reduced risk of esophageal SCC, compared with individuals with normal and abnormal esophageal mucosa. Recommendations to Yanting residents to change their dietary behaviors should be made in order to reduce cancer risk.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2001-2006
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to investigate the diagnostic significance of EBV antibody combined detection for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in a high incidence region of southern China. Two hundred and eleven untreated NPC patients, 203 non-NPC ENT patients, and 210 healthy controls were recruited for the study. The titers of VCA/IgA and EA/IgA were assessed by immunoenzyme assay, and the levels of Rta/IgG and EBNA1/IgA were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The levels of VCA/IgA, EA/IgA, Rta/IgG and EBNA1/IgA demonstrated no association with gender or age (p>0.05). The receiver operating characteristic curve and the area under the curve were used to evaluate the diagnostic value. The sensitivity of VCA/IgA (98.1%) and the specificity of EA/IgA (98.5%) were the highest. When a logistic regression model was used to combine the results from multiple antibodies to increase the accuracy, the combination of VCA/IgA+Rta/IgG, whose area under the curve was 0.99, had the highest diagnostic efficiency, and its sensitivity, specificity and Youden index were 94.8%, 98.0% and 0.93 respectively. The data suggest that the combination of VCA/IgA+Rta/IgG may be most suitable for NPC serodiagnosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1949-1953
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• 2014

Background: CA125 and HE4 are used in calculating Risk of Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA); and Risk of Malignancy Index (RMI). However, studies showed that normal levels of CA125, and HE4 differ among ethnicities such as between Asians and Caucasians, thus affecting the accuracy of the RMI score and ROMA in predicting ovarian malignancy. This study aimed to determine whether new or modified cutoff values for Ca125, HE4, the RMI score, and ROMA resulted in a better prediction of malignancy compared with the previous or standard ones. Materials and Methods: Serum level of CA125 and HE4 from 128 patients with diagnosis of ovarian tumor that had been collected before surgery at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (CMH) in Jakarta from November 2010 until May 2011 were reviewed and analysed. The standard cutoff values of these biomarkers, RMI, and ROMA were modified by using logistic regression model. The modified cutoff values were compared to the standard cutoff values in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Results: The modified cutoff value of CA125, HE4, RMI score and ROMA were 165.2 U/mL, 103.4 pM, 368.7, 28/54. The sensitivity and specificity of the modified cutoff values CA125, HE 4, RMI score and ROMA in differentiating benign from malignant and borderline were 67% and 75,4%; 73.1% and 85.2%; 73.1% and 80.3%; and 77.6% and 86.9%. While the sensitivity and specificity of the standard cutoff value of CA125; HE4; RMI score; and ROMA were 91% and 24.6%; 83.6% and 65%; 80.6% and 65.6%; and 91.0% and 42.6%. The accuracy of modified cutoff values compared with standard cutoff values were: 71.2% vs 59.3%, 78.9% vs 75% vs, 76.5% vs 73.4%, and 82% vs 67.9%. Conclusions: The new or modified cutoff values of Ca125, HE4, RMI score and ROMA resulted in higher accuracy compared to the previous or standard ones, at the cost of reduced sensitivity.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.449-458
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of infants' temperaments and eating behaviors, mothers' eating behaviors and feeding practices in poor eating infants. The participants were 80 infants of 12-24 months (27 poor eaters and 53 matched normal controls) from a hospital and a public health center. Mothers were questioned about their eating behaviors and feeding practices, and infants' temperaments, eating behaviors, and nutrient intakes by one day food recall. Subjects were divided by mean nutrient adequacy ratio (MAR, < 0.75; poor eater). Intakes of Ca, P, Fe, Zn, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, E, folate were below 75% RDA in poor eaters, whereas protein, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B$_6$, C, folate exceeded 125% RDA in good eaters. Rhythmicity of infants' temperaments and eating behaviors, restriction of mothers' eating behaviors and feeding practices were significantly lower, whereas activity levels of infants' temperaments were higher than good eaters. In multiple logistic regression model of poor eaters, activity of infants' temperaments (T, OR: 1.19, CI: 1.05 - 1.35) and attention spans of infants' eating behaviors (A, OR: 1.18, CI: 1.03 - 1.35) were significantly positive, whereas rhythmicity of infants' eating behaviors (R, OR: 0.79, CI: 0.61-0.94) was significantly negative [E (the legit) : -6.8644+0.1712$\times$T-0.2337$\times$R+0.1641$\times$A]. Our findings suggest that examination of eating behaviors, feeding practices, and temperaments will help target interventions to improve infants' food intakes, and these variables should be examined at the time of nutrition counseling.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1145-1150
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• 2015

Associations of GSTT1, GSTM1 and CYP1A1 gene variants with risk of developing oral cancer were evaluated in this study. A case-control study was conducted in Pashtun population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in which 200 hospital based oral cancer cases and 151 population based healthy controls exposed to similar environmental conditions were included. Sociodemographic data were obtained and blood samples were collected with informed consent for analysis. GSTM1 and GSTT1 were analysed through conventional PCR method while specific RT-PCR method was used to detect CYP1A1 polymorphisms. Results were analyzed for conditional logistic regression model by SPSS version 20. The study shows that patients with either GSTM1 or GSTT1 null genotypes have significantly higher risk of oral cancer (adjusted odds (OR): (3.019 (1.861-4.898) and 3.011(1.865-4.862), respectively), which further increased when either one or both null genes were present in combination (adjusted odds (OR): (3.627 (1.981-6.642 and 9.261 (4.495-19.079), respectively). CYP1A1 rs4646903 gene variants individually showed weak association OR: 1.121 (0.717-1.752); however, in the presence of GSTM1 and/or GSTT1 null genotypes further increasing the association (adjusted odds (ORs): 4.576 (2.038-10.273), 5.593 (2.530-12.362) and 16.10 (3.854-67.260 for GSTM/GSTT null and CYP1A1 wild type, GSTM/GSTT either null and CYP1A1 variant alleles, and all 3 gene polymorphisms combinations, respectively). Our findings suggest that presence of GSTM1 and/or GSTT1 null genotypes along with variant alleles of CYP1A1 may be the risk alleles for oral cancer susceptibility in Pashtun population.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4335-4338
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• 2015

Background: Oral cancer is the third most common malignancy in Saudi Arabia, the highest incidence of which is reported from Jazan province. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of various locally used substances, especially shamma, with oral cancer in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was designed and patient records were scanned for histologically confirmed oral cancer cases. Forty eight patients who were recently diagnosed with oral cancer were selected as cases. Two healthy controls were selected for each observed case and they were matched with age (+/- 5 years) gender and location. Use of different forms of tobacco such as cigarettes, pipe-smoking and shamma (smokeless-tobacco) was assessed. Khat, a commonly used chewing substance in the community was also included. Descriptive analysis was first performed followed by multiple logistic regression (with and without interaction) to derive odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs). Results: Mean age of the study sample (56% males and 44% females) was 65.3 years. Multinomial regression analysis revealed that shamma use increased the odds of developing oral cancer by 29 times (OR=29.3; 10.3-83.1). Cigarette (OR=6.74; 2.18-20.8) was also seen to have an effect. With the interaction model the odds ratio increased significantly for shamma users (OR=37.2; 12.3-113.2) and cigarette smokers (OR=10.5; 2.88-3.11). Khat was observed to have negative effect on the disease occurrence when used along with shamma (OR=0.01; 0.00 - 0.65). Conclusions: We conclude that shamma, a moist form of smokeless tobacco is a major threat for oral cancer occurrence in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. This study gives a direction to conduct further longitudinal studies in the region with increased sample size representing the population in order to provide more substantial evidence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.851-856
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• 2012

Objective: NBS1 plays a key role in the repair of DNA double-strand break (DSB). We conducted this study to investigate the effect of two critical polymorphisms (rs1805794 and rs13312840) in NBS1 on treatment response and prognosis of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with platinum-based chemotherapy. Methods: Using TaqMan methods, we genotyped the two polymorphisms in 147 NSCLC patients. Odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidential intervals (CIs) were calculated as a measure of difference in the response rate of platinum-based chemotherapy using logistic regression analysis. The Kaplan-Meier and log-rank tests were used to assess the differences in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazards model was applied to assess the hazard ratios (HRs) for PFS and OS. Results: Neither of the two polymorphisms was significantly associated with treatment response of platinum-based chemotherapy. However, patients carrying the rs1805794 CC variant genotype had a significantly improved PFS compared to those with GG genotype (16.0 vs. 8.0 months, P = 0.040). Multivariable cox regression analysis further showed that rs1805974 was a significantly favorable prognostic factor for PFS [CC/CG vs. GG: Adjusted HR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.39-0.99; CC vs. CG/GG: Adjusted HR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.32-0.97). Similarly, rs13312840 with a small sample size also showed a significant association with PFS (CC vs. CT/TT: Adjusted HR = 25.62, 95% CI: 1.53-428.39). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that NBS1 polymorphisms may be genetic biomarkers for NSCLC prognosis especially PFS with platinum-based chemotherapy in the Chinese population.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.829-844
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• 2013

This study performed comprehensive tests on the four hypotheses on the capital structures for the firms listed in the KOSPI during the period from 2006 to 2011. It may be of concern to find any financial profiles on firms' leverage across the book- and market-value bases since there was relatively little attention drawn to any financial changing profile of the leverage surrounding the period of the pre-and the post-global financial crises. The findings of this study may also be compared with those of the previous related literature, by which it may be expected to enhance the robustness and consistency of the results across the different classifications on capital markets. It was found that three explanatory variables such as PFT, SIZE, and RISK, were found to be the statistically significant attributes on leverage during the tested period. Moreover, the outcome by the Fisher Exact test showed that a firm belonging to each corresponding industry may possess its reversion tendency towards the industry mean and median leverage ratios.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.sup
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• pp.29-38
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to establish an association between the percent of energy from total sugar and disease prevalence of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome with the context of the current population dietary practice in Korea. The Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey, 2001 and 2002 dataset were used as the source of data for this research. Usual nutritional intakes for over 20 years old people were calculated from the two non-consecutive dietary intake data from KNHANES 2001 and 2002 dataset. SAS and SUDAAN were used for statistical analyses. Sample weighted means, standard errors, and population percentages were calculated, and multiple logistic regression model with adjustment for covariates were used to determine the odds ratios(ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. Subjects were categorized as 3 ways and compared the LS means and ORs for heath factors. First, subjects excluding pregnant women, were categorized according to percent of energy from the usual total sugar intakes as ${\leq}10%$, 11-15%, 16-20%, 21-25%, >25%. Risk of LDL cholesterol showed a tendency to increase in the '>25%' group compared to the '<10%' group. The risks of the other health effects did not show any significant differences. Second, the subjects were categorized considering both Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range(AMDR) from carbohydrate and %Energy from total sugar as 'CHO<55% & Total sugar ${\leq}10%$', 'CHO 55-70% & Total sugar 11-25%', and '$CHO{\geq}70%$ & Total sugar ${\geq}25%$'. The risk of obesity tended to increase in the '$CHO{\geq}70%$ & Total sugar ${\geq}25%$' group compared to the 'CHO<55% & Total sugar ${\leq}10%$'. Third, the subjects were categorized as 'CHO<55% & Total sugar ${\leq}10%$', 'CHO 55-70% & Total sugar 11-20%', and '$CHO{\geq}70%$ & Total sugar ${\geq}20%$'. The risk of obesity also tended to increase in the '$CHO{\geq}70%$ & Total sugar ${\geq}20%$' group compared to the 'CHO<55% & Total sugar ${\geq}20%$' group. In conclusion, risk of LDL cholesterol showed a tendency to increase in the over 25% total sugar intake group, and the risk of obesity tended to increase in the 20-25% total sugar intake and high carbohydrate intake group. The risks of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome were not associated with total sugar intakes. More research to elucidate the association for Korean between the intakes of total sugar, added sugar, glucose, fructose, and sweeteners and diseases prevalences shoud be excuted in the future.