Publications by authors named "Key T"

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).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as a diverse class of environmental pollutants, garnering increasing attention due to their various structural types and potential ecological impacts. The impact of select PFAS on environmental microorganisms and the potential for microbial degradation of certain PFAS are timely research topics. In this study, we conducted a series of batch incubation to investigate the effects of C-C perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs), as well as linear and branched perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) monomers, on the Feammox reaction and Acidimicrobium sp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adiposity is positively associated with risk of some cancer sites and other health conditions in men; however, it is unclear if endogenous hormones play a role in these associations. We examined how body composition, measured from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and common measures of adiposity (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * No significant associations were found between individual metabolites or patterns and overall prostate cancer risk after adjusting for multiple tests, except for six specific phosphatidylcholines linked to advanced cases diagnosed within 10 years.
  • * Two metabolite patterns (1 and 2) showed inverse associations with advanced prostate cancer, while pattern 3 was related to prostate cancer death, indicating that metabolite profiles may change several years before advanced disease is detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Being overweight (adiposity) can increase the risk of dying from prostate cancer and other causes in men who have this disease.
  • A study followed 1968 men for about 9.5 years and found that gaining weight around the time of being diagnosed with prostate cancer made it more likely for them to not survive as long.
  • The results suggest that men should try to keep a healthy weight to potentially live longer, especially after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, but more research is needed to fully understand the connection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Food biodiversity in human diets has potential co-benefits for both public health and sustainable food systems. However, current evidence on the potential relationship between food biodiversity and cancer risk, and particularly gastrointestinal cancers typically related to diet, remains limited. This study evaluated how dietary species richness (DSR) was associated with gastrointestinal cancer risk in a pan-European population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Fruit consumption has been associated with a lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. We investigated the cross-sectional and prospective associations of fruit consumption with markers of adiposity, blood pressure, lipids, low-grade inflammation, glycaemia, and oxidative stress.

Methods: The main analyses included 365 534 middle-aged adults from the UK Biobank at baseline, of whom 11 510, and 38 988 were included in the first and second follow-up respectively, free from CVD and cancer at baseline.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare traditional and novel body shape indexes (like ABSI and HI) regarding their associations with inflammation markers, particularly C-reactive protein (CRP), using data from the EPIC and UK Biobank cohorts.
  • Participants included nearly 444,000 individuals, with the analysis involving various body shape phenotypes derived from measurements such as height and weight.
  • Results indicated that traditional measures like BMI and waist circumference were positively linked to CRP levels, while some body phenotypes showed varying associations by sex, highlighting the complexity of body shape and inflammation relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The associations of vegetarian diets with risks for site-specific cancers have not been estimated reliably due to the low number of vegetarians in previous studies. Therefore, the Cancer Risk in Vegetarians Consortium was established. The aim is to describe and compare the baseline characteristics between non-vegetarian and vegetarian diet groups and between the collaborating studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To optimally employ Natural Source Zone Depletion (NSZD) and Enhanced Source Zone Depletion (ESZD) at sites impacted by light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPL), monitoring strategies are required. Emerging use of subsurface oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) sensors shows promise for tracking redox evolution, which reflects ongoing biogeochemical processes. However, further understanding of how soil redox dynamics relate to subsurface microbial activity and LNAPL degradation pathways is needed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied proteins in the blood to understand how they relate to prostate cancer risk.
  • They found 20 proteins connected to different types of prostate cancer, including aggressive and early onset forms.
  • One protein, MSMB, was especially important because it helped tell the difference between normal tissue and cancerous tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Circulating free insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) was studied to determine its relationship with prostate cancer risk by analyzing data from 767 cases and 767 matched controls in a long-term cohort.
  • The study found that levels of circulating free IGF-I were not significantly associated with overall prostate cancer risk, tumor stage, or histological grade.
  • Researchers suggest further investigation into different methods of assessing bioavailable IGF-I to better understand its connection to prostate cancer, given the known link between total IGF-I levels and cancer risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced breast carcinogenesis are not fully understood but may involve hormonal changes.

Methods: Cross-sectional associations were investigated between self-reported alcohol intake and serum or plasma concentrations of estradiol, estrone, progesterone (in premenopausal women only), testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in 45 431 premenopausal and 173 476 postmenopausal women. Multivariable linear regression was performed separately for UK Biobank, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, and Endogenous Hormones and Breast Cancer Collaborative Group, and meta-analyzed the results.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The UK Biobank data allows researchers to study links between plasma proteins and cancer risks, analyzing 1463 proteins across 19 cancers over an average follow-up of 12 years.
  • Out of 618 identified protein-cancer associations, 107 were persistent for diagnoses occurring more than seven years after initial blood draw, indicating potential early indicators of cancer risk.
  • Four specific proteins (CD74, TNFRSF1B, ADAM8, SFTPA2) showed strong connections to different cancers, suggesting they could play a role in cancer development and risk prediction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • There is uncertainty about the adequacy of contemporary plant-based diets in meeting essential nutrient intakes, leading to the establishment of the Feeding the Future (FEED) study in the UK.
  • The study involved 6,342 participants across various diet groups (omnivores, flexitarians, pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans), assessing their diets through food frequency questionnaires.
  • Findings revealed that while most participants met UK recommendations for certain nutrients, vegetarians and vegans often had lower protein and certain vitamins, indicating a need for better dietary choices or food fortification to prevent nutrient deficiencies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Evidence of an association between dietary fiber intake and risk of advanced and aggressive forms of prostate cancer (PC) and PC mortality is limited.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine associations between intakes of dietary fiber overall and by food source and risk of advanced and aggressive forms of PC.

Design: The study design was a pooled analysis of the primary data from 15 cohorts in 3 continents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aqueous film forming foam (AFFF)-impacted asphalt and concrete may serve as potential secondary sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the environment through surficial leaching. We aimed to understand the vertical distribution and surficial release of PFAS from AFFF-impacted asphalt and concrete cores collected from various locations (∼10-70 m distance between samples). Among the PFAS analyzed, 6:2 FTS was observed as having the highest concentration in the surface layer (0 - 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Nutri-score is now widely available in food packages in Europe.

Aim: To study the overall nutritional quality of the diet in relation to risks of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort METHODS: We collected dietary data at baseline from validated food frequency questionnaires. We used a dietary index based on the UK Food Standards Agency modified nutrient profiling system (FSAm-NPS-DI) underlying the Nutri-Score label, to measure the nutritional quality of the diet.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A recent study analyzed genetic data from over 156,000 prostate cancer cases and 788,000 controls from diverse populations, significantly increasing the representation of non-European participants.
  • Researchers identified 187 new genetic risk variants for prostate cancer, bringing the total to 451, enhancing understanding of genetic factors across different ancestries.
  • The developed genetic risk score (GRS) showed varying risk levels for prostate cancer among different ancestry groups, highlighting its potential for better risk assessment, especially in men of African descent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Previously reported associations of protein-rich foods with stroke subtypes have prompted interest in the assessment of individual amino acids. We examined the associations of dietary amino acids with risks of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke in the EPIC study.

Methods: We analysed data from 356,142 participants from seven European countries.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Understanding the role of circulating proteins in prostate cancer risk can reveal key biological pathways and identify novel targets for cancer prevention.

Methods: We investigated the association of 2,002 genetically predicted circulating protein levels with risk of prostate cancer overall, and of aggressive and early onset disease, using -pQTL Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization. Findings for proteins with support from both MR, after correction for multiple-testing, and colocalization were replicated using two independent cancer GWAS, one of European and one of African ancestry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Germline gene panel testing is recommended for men with advanced prostate cancer (PCa) or a family history of cancer. While evidence is limited for some genes currently included in panel testing, gene panels are also likely to be incomplete and missing genes that influence PCa risk and aggressive disease.

Objective: To identify genes associated with aggressive PCa.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced breast carcinogenesis are not fully understood but may involve hormonal changes.

Methods: We investigated cross-sectional associations between self-reported alcohol intake and serum or plasma concentrations of oestradiol, oestrone, progesterone (in pre-menopausal women only), testosterone, androstenedione, DHEAS (dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate) and SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) in 45 431 pre-menopausal and 173 476 post-menopausal women. We performed multivariable linear regression separately for UK Biobank, EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) and EHBCCG (Endogenous Hormones and Breast Cancer Collaborative Group), and meta-analysed the results.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within concrete pads impacted by historical firefighting training using aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) may be potential secondary sources of PFAS due to surficial leaching. This study aimed to (i) characterize the effectiveness of two commercially available sealants (Product A and Product B) in mitigating leaching of five PFAS (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Modelled dietary scenarios often fail to reflect true dietary practice and do not account for variation in the environmental burden of food due to sourcing and production methods. Here we link dietary data from a sample of 55,504 vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters with food-level data on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication risk and potential biodiversity loss from a review of 570 life-cycle assessments covering more than 38,000 farms in 119 countries. Our results include the variation in food production and sourcing that is observed in the review of life-cycle assessments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF