Lung cancer risk and do-it-yourself activities. A neglected risk factor for lung cancer.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between do-it-yourself activities entailing the exposure to carcinogenic substances and the risk of lung cancer.

Methods: We pooled individual data from different case-control studies conducted in Northwestern Spain which investigated residential radon and lung cancer. Cases had an anatomopathologically confirmed primary lung cancer and controls were selected at the pre-surgery unit with uncomplicated surgeries.

Alcohol consumption and lung cancer risk in never smokers: a pooled analysis of case-control studies.

Background: Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in developed countries but the etiology of lung cancer risk in never smokers (LCRINS) is largely unknown. We aim to assess the effects of alcohol consumption, in its different forms, on LCRINS.

Methods: We pooled six multi-center case-control studies developed in the northwest of Spain.

In vitro infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis induces a distinct immunological pattern in blood from healthy relatives of tuberculosis patients.

Part of the susceptibility to tuberculosis has a genetic basis, which is clear in primary immunodeficiencies, but is less evident in apparently immunocompetent subjects. Immune responses were analysed in blood samples from tuberculosis patients and their healthy first-degree relatives who were infected in vitro with mycobacteria (either Mycobacterium tuberculosis or M. bovis BCG).

Small Cell Lung Cancer. Methodology and Preliminary Results of the SMALL CELL Study.

Introduction: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the most aggressive histologic type of lung cancer, and accounts for approximately 10%-15% of all cases. Few studies have analyzed the effect of residential radon. Our aim is to determine the risk factors of SCLC.

Immunological response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in blood from type 2 diabetes patients.

The convergence of tuberculosis and diabetes represents a co-epidemic that threatens progress against tuberculosis. We have investigated type 2 diabetes as a risk factor for tuberculosis susceptibility, and have used as experimental model whole blood infected in vitro with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Blood samples from diabetic patients were found to have a higher absolute neutrophil count that non-diabetic controls, but their immune functionality seemed impaired because they displayed a lower capacity to phagocytose M.

[Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in real life. LEONPOC study].

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate different characteristics of COPD patients according to phenotypes and GOLD guidelines.according to GesEPOC phenotypes and GOLD 2011 ABCD guidelines and pharmacological treatment agreement.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Plasma contributes to the antimicrobial activity of whole blood against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The whole blood model for infection has proven useful to analyze the immunological response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, because it exerts a significant antimicrobial activity. Although this activity has been generally assumed to be cellular, we have found that the leukocyte fraction of blood from healthy volunteers did not kill the bacilli. We have discovered that plasma was responsible for a large proportion, but not all, of the antimicrobial activity.

Microarray analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected monocytes reveals IL26 as a new candidate gene for tuberculosis susceptibility.

Differences in the activity of monocytes/macrophages, important target cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, might influence tuberculosis progression. With the purpose of identifying candidate genes for tuberculosis susceptibility we infected monocytes from both healthy elderly individuals (a tuberculosis susceptibility group) and elderly tuberculosis patients with M. tuberculosis, and performed a microarray experiment.

[Estimate of the real incidence of tuberculosis in the Leon Health Area: application of the capture-recapture method to compare two information sources].

Introduction: The actual incidence of tuberculosis is probably higher than that previously published in national and international records. Under-reporting is estimated to fluctuate between 7% and 27%, according to studies.

Objective: To estimate the incidence rate of tuberculosis in the area of León for 2008 and 2009 using the capture-recapture method in order to compare two sources of information: prescribed tuberculostatic drugs (combination of rifampicin-isoniazid) and the regional epidemiological surveillance system register (SIVE).