Association of juvenile idiopathic arthritis with maternal infection: a case control study.

Objective: Maternal infection has been posited as a risk factor for childhood autoimmune disease such as type I diabetes. Given that similar studies in JIA are scant, our objective was to evaluate the association between Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and maternal infection.

Methods: This case-control study used an existing database that included 1290 JIA cases and 6072 controls matched on birth year.

Association of prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution with adverse birth outcomes and effect modification by socioeconomic factors.

Background: Maternal exposure to air pollution has been associated with birth outcomes; however, few studies examined biologically critical exposure windows shorter than trimesters or potential effect modifiers.

Objectives: To examine associations of prenatal fine particulate matter (PM), by trimester and in biologically critical windows, with birth outcomes and assess potential effect modifiers.

Methods: This study used two pregnancy cohorts (CANDLE and TIDES; N = 2099) in the ECHO PATHWAYS Consortium.

Residential proximity to major roads and fecundability in a preconception cohort.

Unlabelled: Emerging evidence from animal and human studies indicates that exposure to traffic-related air pollution may adversely affect fertility.

Methods: Among 7,342 female pregnancy planners from the United States and 1,448 from Canada, we examined the association between residential proximity to major roads and fecundability, the per-cycle probability of conception. From 2013 to 2019, women 21-45 years old who were trying to conceive without fertility treatment completed an online baseline questionnaire and follow-up questionnaires every 8 weeks for up to 12 months or until pregnancy.

Ambient Air Pollution Exposure and Fecundability in Women Undergoing In Vitro Fertilization.

Background: Limited research suggests ambient air pollution impairs fecundity but groups most susceptible have not been identified. We studied whether long-term ambient air pollution exposure prior to an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle was associated with successful livebirth, and whether associations were modified by underlying infertility diagnosis.

Methods: Data on women initiating their 1 autologous IVF cycle in 2012-13 were obtained from four U.

Urinary cadmium and estimated dietary cadmium in the Women's Health Initiative.

Cadmium, a heavy metal dispersed in the environment as a result of industrial and agricultural applications, has been implicated in several human diseases including renal disease, cancers, and compromised bone health. In the general population, the predominant sources of cadmium exposure are tobacco and diet. Urinary cadmium (uCd) reflects long-term exposure and has been frequently used to assess cadmium exposure in epidemiological studies; estimated dietary intake of cadmium (dCd) has also been used in several studies.

High prevalence of screen detected prostate cancer in West Africans: implications for racial disparity of prostate cancer.

Purpose: To our knowledge the reasons for the high rates of prostate cancer in black American men are unknown. Genetic and lifestyle factors have been implicated. Better understanding of prostate cancer rates in West African men would help clarify why black American men have such high rates since the groups share genetic ancestry and yet have different lifestyles and screening practices.

Dietary cadmium exposure and risk of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer in the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: In vitro and animal data suggest that cadmium, a heavy metal that contaminates some foods and tobacco plants, is an estrogenic endocrine disruptor. Elevated estrogen exposure is associated with breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer risk.

Objectives: We examined the association between dietary cadmium intake and risk of these cancers in the large, well-characterized Women's Health Initiative (WHI).

Prostate cancer incidence rates in Africa.

African American men have among the highest prostate cancer incidence rates in the world yet rates among their African counterparts are unclear. In this paper, we compared reported rates among black men of Sub-Saharan African descent using data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program for 1973-2007. Although population-based data in Africa are quite limited, the available data from IARC showed that rates among blacks were highest in the East (10.

Chronic typhoid infection and the risk of biliary tract cancer and stones in Shanghai, China.

Previous studies have shown a positive association between chronic typhoid carriage and biliary cancers. We compared serum Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi antibody titers between biliary tract cancer cases, biliary stone cases without evidence of cancer, and healthy subjects in a large population-based case-control study in Shanghai, China.Participants included 627 newly diagnosed primary biliary tract cancer patients; 1,037 biliary stone cases (774 gallbladder and 263 bile-duct) and 959 healthy subjects without a history of cancer, randomly selected from the Shanghai Resident Registry.

The association between inflammation-related genes and serum androgen levels in men: the prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian study.

Background: Androgens and inflammation have been implicated in the etiology of several cancers, including prostate cancer. Serum androgens have been shown to correlate with markers of inflammation and expression of inflammation-related genes.

Methods: In this report, we evaluated associations between 9,932 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) marking common genetic variants in 774 inflammation-related genes and four serum androgen levels (total testosterone [T], bioavailable T [BioT]; 5α-androstane-3α, 17β-diol glucuronide [3αdiol G], and 4-androstene-3,17-dione [androstenedione]), in 560 healthy men (median age 64 years) drawn from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

Association between genetic variants in the 8q24 cancer risk regions and circulating levels of androgens and sex hormone-binding globulin.

Background: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple independent regions on chromosome 8q24 that are associated with cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, and bladder.

Methods: To investigate their biological basis, we examined the possible association between 164 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 8q24 risk regions spanning 128,101,433-128,828,043 bp, and serum androgen (testosterone, androstenedione, 3alphadiol G, and bioavailable testosterone), and sex hormone-binding globulin levels in 563 healthy, non-Hispanic, Caucasian men (55-74 years old) from a prospective cohort study (the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial). Age-adjusted linear regression models were used to determine the association between the SNPs in an additive genetic model and log-transformed biomarker levels.

International trends in the incidence of testicular cancer, 1973-2002.

Background: Whereas testicular cancer incidence rates have been widely reported in populations of Northern European ancestry, rates in other populations have been less frequently examined. In a prior report, global testicular cancer incidence rates and trends for the years 1973 to 1997 were summarized. The current report extends these analyses with an additional 5 years of data from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents.

Measuring serum melatonin in epidemiologic studies.

Background: Epidemiologic data on serum melatonin, a marker of circadian rhythms, and cancer are sparse due largely to the lack of reliable assays with high sensitivity to detect relatively low melatonin levels in serum collected during daylight, as commonly available in most epidemiologic studies.

Methods: To help expand epidemiologic research on melatonin, we assessed the reproducibility and refined a currently available melatonin RIA, and evaluated its application to epidemiologic investigations by characterizing melatonin levels in serum, urine, and/or plasma in 135 men from several ethnic groups.

Results: Reproducibility was high for the standard 1.

Sex disparities in cancer incidence by period and age.

Background: Cancer epidemiology articles often point out that cancer rates tend to be higher among males than females yet rarely is this theme the subject of investigation.

Methods: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program data to compute age-adjusted (2000 U.S.

Polychlorinated biphenyls and risk of testicular germ cell tumors.

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), may alter hormonal balance and thereby increase risk of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT). To study the relationship of PCBs to TGCT, prediagnostic serum samples from 736 cases and 913 controls in the Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants study were analyzed. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using logistic regression.

Persistent organochlorine pesticides and risk of testicular germ cell tumors.

Background: Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as persistent organochlorine pesticides, has been suggested to increase the risk of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs).

Methods: To study the relationship of POP exposure to TGCT risk, prediagnostic serum samples from 754 case subjects and 928 control subjects enrolled in the Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants Study were analyzed for cis-nonachlor, trans-nonachlor, oxychlordane, total chlordanes, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, mirex, p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), and p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and their associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of TGCT overall and for the histological subgroups, seminoma and nonseminoma, were estimated using multivariable logistic regression.

Insulin-like growth factor 1, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3, and testicular germ-cell tumor risk.

Studies have consistently shown that taller men are at increased risk of testicular germ-cell tumors. Thus, it is plausible that factors associated with height may also influence risk of these tumors. The authors examined associations between testicular germ-cell tumor risk and circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) among 517 cases and 790 controls from the US Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants (STEED) Study (2002-2005).

Genetic variants in the 8q24 locus and risk of testicular germ cell tumors.

Much evidence supports the premise that population genetic variation contributes significantly to the risk of testicular germ-cell tumor (TGCT). However, investigations of the association between genomic markers and TGCT susceptibility are scarce. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the locus 8q24 have recently been found to be associated with prostate, colorectal and breast cancer.