Feasibility of precision smoking treatment in a low-income community setting: results of a pilot randomized controlled trial in The Southern Community Cohort Study.

Background: The feasibility of precision smoking treatment in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities has not been studied.

Methods: Participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study who smoked daily were invited to join a pilot randomized controlled trial of three smoking cessation interventions: guideline-based care (GBC), GBC plus nicotine metabolism-informed care (MIC), and GBC plus counseling guided by a polygenic risk score (PRS) for lung cancer. Feasibility was assessed by rates of study enrollment, engagement, and retention, targeting > 70% for each.

Infection and tissue distribution of highly pathogenic avian influenza A type H5N1 (clade 2.3.4.4b) in red fox kits ().

Avian influenza H5N1 is a highly pathogenic virus that primarily affects birds. However, it can also infect other animal species, including mammals. We report the infection of nine juvenile red foxes () with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A type H5N1 (Clade 2.

Dispositional optimism and optimistic bias: Associations with cessation motivation, confidence, and attitudes.

Objective: To test whether 2 conceptually overlapping constructs, dispositional optimism (generalized positive expectations) and optimistic bias (inaccurately low risk perceptions), may have different implications for smoking treatment engagement.

Method: Predominantly Black, low-income Southern Community Cohort study smokers (n = 880) self-reported dispositional optimism and pessimism (Life Orientation Test-Revised subscales: 0 = neutral, 12 = high optimism/pessimism), comparative lung cancer risk (Low/Average/High), and information to calculate objective lung cancer risk (Low/Med/High). Perceived risk was categorized as accurate (perceived = objective), optimistically-biased (perceived < objective), or pessimistically-biased (perceived > objective).

Evaluating breast cancer predisposition genes in women of African ancestry.

Purpose: Studies conducted primarily among European ancestry women reported 12 breast cancer predisposition genes. However, etiologic roles of these genes in breast cancer among African ancestry women have been less well-investigated.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study in African American women, which included 1117 breast cancer cases and 2169 cancer-free controls, and a pooled analysis, which included 7096 cases and 8040 controls of African descent.

A pooled case-only analysis of obesity and breast cancer subtype among Black women in the southeastern United States.

Purpose: To evaluate the association between obesity and the relative prevalence of tumor subtypes among Black women with breast cancer (BC).

Methods: We conducted a pooled case-only analysis of 1,793 Black women with invasive BC recruited through three existing studies in the southeastern US. Multivariable case-only polytomous logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between obesity, measured by pre-diagnostic body mass index (BMI), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 + (HER2 +) and triple negative BC (TNBC) subtype relative to hormone receptor (HR) + /HER2- status (referent).