• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3241-3245
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• 2015

Purpose: To examine the effectiveness of mitomycin-C and chemo-hyperthermia in combination for patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Materials and Methods: Between November 2011-September 2013, 43 patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer undergoing adjuvant chemo-hyperthermia in two centers were evaluated retrospectively. Treatment consisted of 6 weekly sessions, followed by 6 sessions. Recurrence and progression rate, recurrence-free interval and side effects were examined. Analyzed factors included age, gender, smoking status, AB0 blood group, body mass index, T stage and grade, concominant CIS assets. The associations between predictors and recurrence were assessed using multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses. Results: A total of 40 patients completed induction therapy. Thirteen (32.5%) were diagnosed with tumor recurrence. Median follow-up was 30 months (range 9-39). Median recurrence-free survival was 23 months (range 6-36). The Kaplan-Meier-estimated recurrence-free rates for the entire group at 12 and 24 months were 82% and 61%. There was no statistically significant difference between patient subgroups. Cox hazard analyses showed that an A blood type (OR=6.23, p=0.031) was an independent predictor of recurrence-free. Adverse effects were seen in 53% of patients and these were frequently grades 1 and 2. Conclusions: Intravesical therapy with combination of mitomycin-C and chemohyperthermia seems to be appropriate in high-risk patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer who cannot tolerate or have contraindications for standard BCG therapy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2002

Objective : To examine the relationship between cigarette smoking, alcohol and cancer mortality in men in the Kangwha cohort after 12 years and 10 months of follow up. Methods : The subjects consisted of 2,681 men in the Kangwha cohort aged over 55 in 1985. Number of deaths and the time to death front all cancers and other cause were measured and the data for the smoking and drinking habits were obtained from the baseline survey data in 1985. All subjects were categorized into four groups according to their smoking habits: non-smokers, ex-smokers, mode(ate-smokers (1-19 cigarettes per day), heavy-smokers ($\geq$20 cigarettes per day). In addition, they were also categorized according to their drinking habits: non-drinkers, light-drinkers ($\leq$1 drink per week), moderate-drinkers (<3 drinks per day), heavy-drinkers ($\geq$3 drinks per day). The cancer specific death rates were calculated according to their smoking and drinking status. The adjusted risk ratio for all cancer deaths according to their smoking and drinking status were estimated using the Cox's proportional hazard regression model. Results : Using nonsmokers as the reference category, the adjusted risk ratio for all cancer deaths were 1.573(95% CI=1.003-2.468) for heavy-smokers. For lung cancer deaths, the adjusted risk ratios were 3.540(95% CI=1.251-10.018) for moderate-smoker and 4.114(95% CI=1.275-13.271) for heavy-smokers. Compared to non-drinkers, the adjusted risk ratio for stomach cancer was 2.204(95% CI=1.114-4.361) for light-drinkers. Conclusion : Smoking is the most significant risk factor for cancer deaths particularly lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4643-4650
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• 2014

Background: For decades, studies have been performed to evaluate the association between ABO blood groups and risk of cancer. However, whether ABO blood groups are associated with overall cancer risk remains unclear. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis of observational studies to assess this association. Materials and Methods: A search of Pubmed, Embase, ScienceDirect, Wiley, and Web of Knowledge databases (to May 2013) was supplemented by manual searches of bibliographies of key retrieved articles and relevant reviews. We included case-control studies and cohort studies with more than 100 cancer cases. Results: The search yielded 89 eligible studies that reported 100,554 cases at 30 cancer sites. For overall cancer risk, the pooled OR was 1.12 (95%CI: 1.09-1.16) for A vs. non- A groups, and 0.84 (95%CI: 0.80-0.88) for O vs. non-O groups. For individual cancer sites, blood group A was found to confer increased risk of gastric cancer (OR=1.18; 95%CI: 1.13-1.24), pancreatic cancer (OR=1.23; 95%CI: 1.15-1.32), breast cancer (OR=1.12; 95%CI: 1.01-1.24), ovarian cancer (OR=1.16; 95%CI: 1.04-1.27), and nasopharyngeal cancer (OR=1.17; 95%CI: 1.00-1.33). Blood group O was found to be linked to decreased risk of gastric cancer (OR=0.84; 95%CI: 0.80-0.88), pancreatic cancer (OR=0.75; 95%CI: 0.70-0.80), breast cancer (OR=0.90; 95%CI: 0.85-0.95), colorectal cancer (OR=0.89; 95%CI: 0.81-0.96), ovarian cancer (OR=0.76; 95%CI: 0.53-1.00), esophagus cancer (OR=0.94; 95%CI: 0.89-1.00), and nasopharyngeal cancer (OR=0.81; 95%CI: 0.70-0.91). Conclusions: Blood group A is associated with increased risk of cancer, and blood group O is associated with decreased risk of cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3417-3422
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• 2012

Objective: Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is one of the pathways of repair of DNA double-strand breaks. A number of genes involved in NHEJ have been implicated as breast cancer susceptibility genes such as LIG4. However, some studies have generated conflicting results. The aim of this Human Genome Epidemiology (HuGE) review and meta-analysis was to investigate association between LIG4 gene polymorphisms in the NHEJ pathway and breast cancer risk. Methods: Studies focusing on the relationship between LIG4 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to breast cancer were selected from the Pubmed, Cochrane library, Embase, Web of Science, Springerlink, CNKI and CBM databases. Data were extracted by two independent reviewers and the meta-analysis was performed with Review Manager Version 5.1.6 and STATA Version 12.0 software, calculating odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs). Results: According to the inclusion criteria, we final included seven studies with a total of 10,321 breast cancer cases and 10,160 healthy controls in the meta-analysis. The results showed no association between LIG4 gene polymorphisms (rs1805386 T>C, rs1805389 C>T, rs1805388 C>T and rs2232641 A>G) and breast cancer risk, suggesting that the mutant situation of these SNPs neither increased nor decreased the risk for breast cancer. In the subgroup analysis by Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and ethnicity, we also found no associations between the variants of LIG4 gene and breast cancer risk among HWE, non-HWE, Caucasians, Asians and Africans. Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that there is a lack of any association between LIG4 gene polymorphisms and the risk of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5171-5174
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• 2013

Background: This study aimed to explore potential associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the x-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) and cleft lip and palate transmembrane protein 1-like (CLPTM1L) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) susceptibility in non-smoker Chinese patients. Methods: A total of 200 NSCLC patients and 200 healthy controls with matched age and gender were recruited for genotyping of XRCC1 SNPs (rs2256507 and rs1001581) and CLPTM1L SNPs (rs401681 and rs4975616). Association of these SNPs with NSCLC risk was evaluated by computing the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) from multivariate unconditional logistic regression analyses with adjustment for gender and age. Results: The frequencies of genotype and allele in these four loci (rs2256507, rs1001581, rs401681, and rs4975616) were not significantly different between the cases and controls, or between either of the histological subgroups (adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma) and controls. Conclusions: Although these SNPs are associated with NSCLC risk in patients with a tobacco-smoking habit, this study demonstrated that XRCC1 and CLPTM1L gene SPNs are not linked with NSCLC risk in non-smoking patients, indicating that molecular mechanisms of NSCLC betwee tobacco smokers and non-smokers may be different. Future studies are needed to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms for NSCLC in non-smokers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5187-5194
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• 2014

Background: Numerous studies have suggested that selenium deficiency may be associated with an increased risk for several types of cancer, but few have focused on thyroid cancer. Materials and Methods: We examined the association between post-diagnostic fingernail selenium levels and differentiated thyroid cancer risk in a French Polynesian matched case-control study. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results: The median selenium concentration among controls was $0.76{\mu}g/g$. Significantly, we found no association between fingernail selenium levels and thyroid cancer risk after conditioning on year of birth and sex and additionally adjusting for date of birth (highest versus lowest quartile: odds-ratio=1.12, 95% confidence interval: 0.66-1.90; p-trend=0.30). After additional adjustment for other covariates, this association remained non-significant (p-trend=0.60). When restricting the analysis to thyroid cancer of 10 mm or more, selenium in nails was non-significantly positively linked to thyroid cancer risk (p-trend=0.09). Although no significant interaction was evidenced between iodine in nails and selenium in nails effect (p=0.70), a non-significant (p-trend =0.10) positive association between selenium and thyroid cancer risk was seen in patients with less than 3 ppm of iodine in nails. The highest fingernail selenium concentration in French Polynesia was in the Marquises Islands ($M=0.87{\mu}g/g$) and in the Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago ($M=0.86{\mu}g/g$). Conclusions: Our results do not support, among individuals with sufficient levels of selenium, that greater long-term exposure to selenium may reduce thyroid cancer risk. Because these findings are based on post-diagnostic measures, studies with prediagnostic selenium are needed for corroboration.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.257-267
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• 1997

This study focuses on the health risk assessment of airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a petrochemical complex, with several emphases on a risk assessment method. The first emphasis is on the importance of hazard identification to determine the likely carcinogenic potential of a VOC. Without considering this type of information, a direct comparison of the carcinogenic risks of two pollutants is meaningless. Therefore, wer suggest that this type of information be prepared and be listed with the estimate of cancer risk in parallel. The second emphasis is on the selection of a better dose-response model to estimate unit risk or cancer potency factor of a carcinogenic VOC. Finally, probilistic risk assessment method is discussed and recommended to use within a comparison of conventional point-estimate method. A health risk assessment has also been carried out. For non-carcinogenic risk, even the highest hazard index for carbon tetrachloride is estimated to be less than 1 with the other VOCs less than 0.03. However, the lifetime cancer risk from the inhalation of airborne VOCs is estimated to be about $2.6 \times 10^{-4}$ which is higher than the risk standard of $10^{-6}$ or even $10^{-5}$. Therefore, the investigation into domestic petrochemical complexes should be strengthened to obtain more fine long-term airborne VOC data.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.242-247
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• 2018

Objectives: To examine survivorship disparities in demographic factors and risk status for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), which accounts for more than 75% of all urinary bladder cancers, but is highly curable with early identification and treatment. Methods: We used the US National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries over a 19-year period (1988-2006) to examine survivorship disparities in age, sex, race/ethnicity, and marital status of patients and risk status classified by histologic grade, stage, size of tumor, and number of multiple primary tumors among NMIBC patients (n=29 326). We applied Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and Cox proportional hazard methods for survival analysis. Results: Among all urinary bladder cancer patients, the majority of NMIBCs were in male (74.1%), non-Latino white (86.7%), married (67.8%), and low-risk (37.6%) to intermediate-risk (44.8%) patients. The mean age was 68 years. Survivorship (in median life years) was highest for non-Latino white (5.4 years), married (5.4 years), and low-risk (5.7 years) patients (K-M analysis, p<0.001). We found significantly lower survivorship for elderly, male (female hazard ratio [HR], 0.96), Latino (HR, 1.20), and unmarried (married HR, 0.93) patients. Conclusions: Survivorship disparities were ubiquitous across age, sex, race/ethnicity, and marital status groups. Non-white, unmarried, and elderly patients had significantly shorter survivorship. The implications of these findings include the need for a heightened focus on health policy and more organized efforts to improve access to care in order to increase the chances of survival for all patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.9579-9586
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• 2014

There is growing scientific evidence linking excess body weight to breast cancer risk. However, there is no common consensus on this relation due partly to methodologies used, populations studied and the cancer subtype. We report here a summary of the present state of knowledge on the role of overweight and obesity in pathogenesis of breast cancer and possible mechanisms through which excess body weight might influence the risk, focusing on the role of oxidative stress in breast cancer etiology. The findings demonstrate duality of excess body weight action in dependence on menopausal status: a statistically significant increased risk in postmenopausal overweight/ obese women and non-significant preventive effect among premenopausal women. Due to several gaps in the literature on this topic, additional studies are needed. Future research should address factors influencing the excess body weight - breast cancer relationship, such as race/ethnicity, tumor subtype, receptor status, the most appropriate measure of adiposity, reproductive characteristics, and lifestyle components.

• Proceedings of the Ginseng society Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.174-181
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• 1998

A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the preventive effect of Korean ginseng against cancer in the population residing ginseng cultivation area, Kangwha-eup from August 1987 to December 1997. The participants consisted of 4,553 adults over 40 years old who completed a questionare on ginseng intake. During the surveillance period, 14.4% (656 of 4,553) of subjects had died, cancer accounting for 23.9% (157) of total deaths. The proportional hazard model of Cox was used to estimate relative risks when controlling simultaneously for covariates. Ginseng intakers had a decreased risk (relative risk(RR) =0.48, 95% confidence interval (Cl) : 0.34-0.66) for cancer compared with non-intakers. The RRs of cancer were 0.36 (95% Cl: 0.24-0.56) for multiple combination intakers. Among 24 red ginseng intakers, there were no cancer deaths. The RRs of ginseng intakers were 0.38 (95% Cl: 0.20-0.71) in gastric cancer and 0.29 (95% Cl: 0.15- 0.57) in lung cancer. These findings strongly suggested Korean ginseng have non-organ specific cancer preventive effects against cancer. Further research for clarifying the mechanisms of prevention and clinical trials on Korean ginseng must be conducted with worldwide collaborations