Publications by authors named "Beral V"

Uncertainty remains regarding the role of diet in colorectal cancer development. We examined associations of 97 dietary factors with colorectal cancer risk in 542,778 Million Women Study participants (12,251 incident cases over 16.6 years), and conducted a targeted genetic analysis in the ColoRectal Transdisciplinary Study, Colon Cancer Family Registry, and Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO).

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Background: Current or recent use of combined oral contraceptives (containing oestrogen+progestagen) has been associated with a small increase in breast cancer risk. Progestagen-only contraceptive use is increasing, but information on associated risks is limited. We aimed to assess breast cancer risk associated with current or recent use of different types of hormonal contraceptives in premenopausal women, with particular emphasis on progestagen-only preparations.

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Background: The ongoing debate of whether use of cellular telephones increases the risk of developing a brain tumor was recently fueled by the launch of the fifth generation of wireless technologies. Here, we update follow-up of a large-scale prospective study on the association between cellular telephone use and brain tumors.

Methods: During 1996-2001, 1.

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Background: Greater early life adiposity has been reported to reduce postmenopausal breast cancer risk but it is unclear whether this association varies by tumour characteristics. We aimed to assess associations of early life body size with postmenopausal breast cancer and its subtypes, allowing for body size at other ages.

Methods: A total of 342,079 postmenopausal UK women who reported their body size at age 10, clothes size at age 20, and body mass index (BMI) at baseline (around age 60) were followed by record linkage to national databases for cancers and deaths.

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Background: Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in UK women. Ovarian cancer survival varies by disease stage at diagnosis, but evidence is mixed on the effect of tumour histological type (histotype) and other factors.

Methods: 1.

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Objectives: We sought to determine the ease with which breast cancer pathology data could be ascertained for a large cohort of Australian women, to support epidemiological research.

Method: We assessed a range of options for accessing breast cancer pathology data. Manual review of the pathology report provided to the New South Wales Cancer Registry (NSWCR) was considered most feasible, complete and reliable.

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Background: Reported associations between depression and myocardial infarction in some studies might be explained by use of psychotropic drugs, residual confounding, and/or reverse causation (whereby heart disease precedes depression). We investigated these hypotheses in a large prospective study of UK women with no previous vascular disease.

Methods: At baseline in median year 2001 (IQR 2001-2003), Million Women Study participants reported whether or not they were currently being treated for depression or anxiety, their self-rated health, and medication use during the previous 4 weeks.

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Viral variants of concern may emerge with dangerous resistance to the immunity generated by the current vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Moreover, if some variants of concern have increased transmissibility or virulence, the importance of efficient public health measures and vaccination programs will increase. The global response must be both timely and science based.

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Background: Social isolation has been associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. However, it is unclear whether the associations differ between fatal and non-fatal events or by the type of isolation (living alone or having few social contacts). We aimed to examine these associations in two large UK prospective cohorts.

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Background: Although dementia is associated with non-participation in cognitive and social activities, this association might merely reflect the consequences of dementia, rather than any direct effect of non-participation on the subsequent incidence of dementia. Because of the slowness with which dementia can develop, unbiased assessment of any such direct effects must relate non-participation in such activities to dementia detection rates many years later. Prospective studies with long-term follow-up can help achieve this by analysing separately the first and second decade of follow-up.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the link between sleep duration and the incidence of breast cancer in a large UK cohort of over 700,000 women, tracking health outcomes over an average of 14.3 years.
  • The analysis, which included a meta-analysis of 14 prospective studies, found no significant differences in breast cancer risk among women reporting different sleep durations compared to those sleeping 7-8 hours.
  • Overall, the findings suggest that sleep duration does not appear to influence the risk of developing breast cancer based on the analyzed data.
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  • The study evaluates how following the UK's Eatwell Guide (EWG) affects health and the environment, focusing on mortality risk and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Less than 0.1% of the sample fully adhered to the EWG, but those who followed more guidelines had a lower mortality risk and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 30%.
  • Adhering to fruit and vegetable guidelines notably decreased mortality risk, while reducing red and processed meat consumption significantly lowered environmental impacts.
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Objective: To help determine whether midlife obesity is a cause of dementia and whether low body mass index (BMI), low caloric intake, and physical inactivity are causes or merely consequences of the gradual onset of dementia by recording these factors early in a large 20-year prospective study and relating them to dementia detection rates separately during follow-up periods of <5, 5 to 9, 10 to 14, and 15+ years.

Methods: A total of 1,136,846 UK women, mean age 56 (SD 5) years, were recruited in 1996 to 2001 and asked about height, weight, caloric intake, and inactivity. They were followed up until 2017 by electronic linkage to National Health Service records, detecting hospital admissions with mention of dementia.

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  • A study investigated how various social factors, like marital status and partner smoking habits, influence women's decisions to quit smoking, involving 53,650 participants from the Million Women Study.
  • Results showed that 31% of participants stopped smoking after four years, with those having non-smoking partners or partners who quit being significantly more likely to quit themselves.
  • The findings indicate that a partner's smoking habits are crucial for smoking cessation success, while socio-economic status and social participation had minimal impact.
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Background: Alcohol intake may be associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease (PD), but findings from previous studies have been inconclusive.

Objective: To determine the association between alcohol intake and PD risk in the Million Women Study, a large, prospective study of women in the UK.

Methods: Between 1996 and 2001, approximately 1.

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  • There is limited research on how different types of physical activity affect fracture risk in postmenopausal women, prompting a study to explore this connection.
  • The UK Million Women Study followed over 371,000 women on various activities like walking, gardening, and yoga for around 12 years to analyze site-specific fractures.
  • Results indicated that gardening reduced upper limb fracture risk, while cycling increased it; overall, most activities lowered lower limb fracture risk, especially walking, yoga, and sports participation.
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There are known short-term benefits in breastfed infants versus bottle-fed infants in terms of lower risks of infection and obesity in infancy and childhood, but the long-term effect on the risk of adult cancers is unclear. In a cohort of 1 in 4 UK women born in 1935-1950 we report the incidence of adult cancers in relation to having been breastfed in infancy. In median year 2001 (interquartile range 2000-2003) 548,741 women without prior cancer reported whether they had been breastfed.

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About 1 in 10 postmenopausal UK women are currently prescribed oral bisphosphonates, but there are concerns about their adverse effects. Osteonecrosis of the jaw is a recognised uncommon but important side effect of intravenous bisphosphonates, but epidemiological evidence on risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw associated with oral bisphosphonate use is less conclusive. The incidence of hospital admission with osteonecrosis of the jaw was examined among 521,695 Million Women Study participants, aged 64.

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Faecal occult blood (FOB) - based screening programmes for colorectal cancer detect about half of all cancers. Little is known about individual health behavioural characteristics which may be associated with screen-detected and interval cancers. Electronic linkage between the UK National Health Service Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) in England, cancer registration and other national health records, and a large on-going UK cohort, the Million Women Study, provided data on 628,976 women screened using a guaiac-FOB test (gFOBt) between 2006 and 2012.

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Background: Available evidence on diet and glioma risk comes mainly from studies with retrospective collection of dietary data. To minimize possible differential dietary recall between those with and without glioma, we present findings from 3 large prospective studies.

Methods: Participants included 692 176 from the UK Million Women Study, 470 780 from the US National Institutes of Health-AARP study, and 99 148 from the US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

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Background: In 2006, the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) in England began offering biennial faecal occult blood testing (FOBt) at ages 60-69 years. Although FOBt is aimed at detecting colorectal neoplasms, other conditions can affect the result. In a large UK prospective study, we examined associations, both before and after screening, between FOBt positivity and 10 conditions that are often associated with gastrointestinal bleeding.

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