Higher Absolute Lymphocyte Counts Predict Lower Mortality from Early-Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in pretreatment biopsies are associated with improved survival in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We investigated whether higher peripheral lymphocyte counts are associated with lower breast cancer-specific mortality (BCM) and overall mortality (OM) in TNBC. Data on treatments and diagnostic tests from electronic medical records of two health care systems were linked with demographic, clinical, pathologic, and mortality data from the California Cancer Registry.

Intake of bean fiber, beans, and grains and reduced risk of hormone receptor-negative breast cancer: the San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study.

High dietary fiber intake has been associated with reduced breast cancer risk, but few studies considered tumor subtypes defined by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status or included racial/ethnic minority populations who vary in their fiber intake. We analyzed food frequency data from a population-based case-control study, including 2135 breast cancer cases (1070 Hispanics, 493 African Americans, and 572 non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs)) and 2571 controls (1391 Hispanics, 557 African Americans, and 623 NHWs). Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for breast cancer associated with fiber intake were calculated using unconditional logistic regression.

Acculturation and Adherence to Physical Activity Recommendations Among Chinese American and Non-Hispanic White Breast Cancer Survivors.

Chinese American breast cancer survivors' adherence to recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines has been understudied. This study investigated their PA adherence by acculturation level (vs. non-Hispanic White (NHW) survivors).

The association of mammographic density with risk of contralateral breast cancer and change in density with treatment in the WECARE study.

Background: Mammographic density (MD) is an established predictor of risk of a first breast cancer, but the relationship of MD to contralateral breast cancer (CBC) risk is not clear, including the roles of age, mammogram timing, and change with treatment. Multivariable prediction models for CBC risk are needed and MD could contribute to these.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of MD and CBC risk in phase II of the WECARE study where cases had a CBC diagnosed ≥ 2 years after first diagnosis at age <55 years and controls had unilateral breast cancer (UBC) with similar follow-up time.

Mutational spectrum in a worldwide study of 29,700 families with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

The prevalence and spectrum of germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been reported in single populations, with the majority of reports focused on White in Europe and North America. The Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA) has assembled data on 18,435 families with BRCA1 mutations and 11,351 families with BRCA2 mutations ascertained from 69 centers in 49 countries on six continents. This study comprehensively describes the characteristics of the 1,650 unique BRCA1 and 1,731 unique BRCA2 deleterious (disease-associated) mutations identified in the CIMBA database.

Breast cancer family history and allele-specific DNA methylation in the legacy girls study.

Family history, a well-established risk factor for breast cancer, can have both genetic and environmental contributions. Shared environment in families as well as epigenetic changes that also may be influenced by shared genetics and environment may also explain familial clustering of cancers. Epigenetic regulation, such as DNA methylation, can change the activity of a DNA segment without a change in the sequence; environmental exposures experienced across the life course can induce such changes.

Pediatric neuro-oncology survival disparities in California.

The objective of this study was to investigate racial/ethnic differences in survival for pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG) and medulloblastoma in the state of California. We obtained data from the California Cancer Registry on 552 high-grade glioma patients (110 brainstem, 442 non-brainstem) and 648 medulloblastoma patients ages 0-19 years from 1988 to 2012. Using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression, we examined the impact of individual and neighborhood characteristics on survival.

Trans-ethnic analysis of metabochip data identifies two new loci associated with BMI.

Objective: Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to assess obesity, which is associated with numerous diseases and negative health outcomes. BMI has been shown to be a heritable, polygenic trait, with close to 100 loci previously identified and replicated in multiple populations. We aim to replicate known BMI loci and identify novel associations in a trans-ethnic study population.

Reproductive history, breast-feeding and risk of triple negative breast cancer: The Breast Cancer Etiology in Minorities (BEM) study.

Few risk factors have been identified for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) which lacks expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This more aggressive subtype disproportionately affects some racial/ethnic minorities and is associated with lower survival. We pooled data from three population-based studies (558 TNBC and 5,111 controls) and examined associations of TNBC risk with reproductive history and breast-feeding.

Impact of individual and neighborhood factors on disparities in prostate cancer survival.

Background: We addressed the hypothesis that individual-level factors act jointly with social and built environment factors to influence overall survival for men with prostate cancer and contribute to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic (SES) survival disparities.

Methods: We analyzed multi-level data, combining (1) individual-level data from the California Collaborative Prostate Cancer Study, a population-based study of non-Hispanic White (NHW), Hispanic, and African American prostate cancer cases (N = 1800) diagnosed from 1997 to 2003, with (2) data on neighborhood SES (nSES) and social and built environment factors from the California Neighborhoods Data System, and (3) data on tumor characteristics, treatment and follow-up through 2009 from the California Cancer Registry. Multivariable, stage-stratified Cox proportional hazards regression models with cluster adjustments were used to assess education and nSES main and joint effects on overall survival, before and after adjustment for social and built environment factors.

Correction to: Dietary intake of soy and cruciferous vegetables and treatment-related symptoms in Chinese-American and non-Hispanic White breast cancer survivors.

In the original publication, the values provided for the isoflavone and glucosinolate intake variables were incorrectly labeled in Table 1. The correct values of 6.3 mg/day for isoflavone intake, and 20.

Circadian genes and risk of prostate cancer in the prostate cancer prevention trial.

Circadian genes have been considered as a possible biological mechanism for the observed relationship between circadian rhythm disruptions and increased risk of hormone-related cancers. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between circadian gene variants and prostate cancer risk and whether reducing bioavailable testosterone modifies the circadian genes-prostate cancer relationship. We conducted a nested case-control study among Caucasian men in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess if finasteride (an androgen bioactivation inhibitor) could prevent prostate cancer.

Dietary intake of soy and cruciferous vegetables and treatment-related symptoms in Chinese-American and non-Hispanic White breast cancer survivors.

Purpose: This project was undertaken to examine the association between dietary intake of soy or cruciferous vegetables and breast cancer treatment-related symptoms among Chinese-American (CA) and Non-Hispanic White (NHW) breast cancer survivors.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 192 CA and 173 NHW female breast cancer survivors (stages 0-III, diagnosed between 2006 and 2012) recruited from two California cancer registries, who had completed primary treatment. Patient-reported data on treatment-related symptoms and potential covariates were collected via telephone interviews.

Characterizing the neighborhood obesogenic environment in the Multiethnic Cohort: a multi-level infrastructure for cancer health disparities research.

Purpose: We characterized the neighborhood obesogenic environment in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) by examining the associations of obesity with attributes of the social and built environment, establishing a multi-level infrastructure for future cancer research.

Methods: For 102,906 African American, Japanese American, Latino, and white MEC participants residing predominately in Los Angeles County, baseline residential addresses (1993-1996) were linked to census and geospatial data, capturing neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES), population density, commuting, food outlets, amenities, walkability, and traffic density. We examined neighborhood attributes and obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m) associations using multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for individual-level (e.

Validation Study of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Eighth Edition Prognostic Stage Compared With the Anatomic Stage in Breast Cancer.

Importance: The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) eighth edition staging manual introduced a new prognostic stage for breast cancer incorporating biologic factors in addition to traditional anatomic factors.

Objective: To perform a validation study of the AJCC eighth edition prognostic stage in a single-institution cohort and a large population database.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Patients with breast cancer treated with surgery as an initial intervention were identified in a prospective institutional database from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the California Cancer Registry.

Comorbidity index in central cancer registries: the value of hospital discharge data.

Background: The presence of comorbid medical conditions can significantly affect a cancer patient's treatment options, quality of life, and survival. However, these important data are often lacking from population-based cancer registries. Leveraging routine linkage to hospital discharge data, a comorbidity score was calculated for patients in the California Cancer Registry (CCR) database.

Time Trends in Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in California Women: Declining Serum Levels, 2011-2015.

After several decades of widespread use, some per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were phased-out of use due to concerns raised by their persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic properties. Our objective was to evaluate temporal trends in serum PFAS levels among 1257 middle-aged and older California women (ages 40-94) during a four year period, beginning approximately 5-10 years after these phase-outs began. An online SPE-HPLC-MS/MS was used to measure 10 long-chain PFASs in serum from blood collected cross-sectionally during 2011-2015 from a subset of participants in the California Teachers Study.

Trends in Cancer Survival by Health Insurance Status in California From 1997 to 2014.

Importance: There have been substantial improvements in the early detection, treatment, and survival from cancer in the United States, but it is not clear to what extent patients with different types of health insurance have benefitted from these advancements.

Objective: To examine trends in cancer survival by health insurance status from January 1997 to December 2014.

Design, Setting, And Participants: California Cancer Registry (a statewide cancer surveillance system) data were used to estimate population-based survival by health insurance status in 3 calendar periods: January 1997 to December 2002, January 2003 to December 2008, and January 2009 to December 2014 with follow-up through 2014.

Associations between ALDH1A1 polymorphisms, alcohol consumption, and mortality among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women diagnosed with breast cancer: the Breast Cancer Health Disparities Study.

Purpose: ALDH1A1, one of the main isotopes of aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 is involved in the differentiation and protection of normal hematopoietic stem cells and functions in alcohol sensitivity and dependence. We evaluated the associations between ALDH1A1 polymorphisms, alcohol consumption, and mortality among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white (NHW) breast cancer (BC) cases from the Breast Cancer Health Disparities Study.

Methods: Nine SNPs in ALDH1A1 were evaluated in 920 Hispanic and 1372 NHW women diagnosed with incident invasive BC.

Predicting Long-Term Cognitive Outcome Following Breast Cancer with Pre-Treatment Resting State fMRI and Random Forest Machine Learning.

We aimed to determine if resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquired at pre-treatment baseline could accurately predict breast cancer-related cognitive impairment at long-term follow-up. We evaluated 31 patients with breast cancer (age 34-65) prior to any treatment, post-chemotherapy and 1 year later. Cognitive testing scores were normalized based on data obtained from 43 healthy female controls and then used to categorize patients as impaired or not based on longitudinal changes.

Assessing biological and technological variability in protein levels measured in pre-diagnostic plasma samples of women with breast cancer.

Background: Quantitative proteomics allows for the discovery and functional investigation of blood-based pre-diagnostic biomarkers for early cancer detection. However, a major limitation of proteomic investigations in biomarker studies remains the biological and technical variability in the analysis of complex clinical samples. Moreover, unlike 'omics analogues such as genomics and transcriptomics, proteomics has yet to achieve reproducibility and long-term stability on a unified technological platform.

Association analysis identifies 65 new breast cancer risk loci.

Breast cancer risk is influenced by rare coding variants in susceptibility genes, such as BRCA1, and many common, mostly non-coding variants. However, much of the genetic contribution to breast cancer risk remains unknown. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study of breast cancer in 122,977 cases and 105,974 controls of European ancestry and 14,068 cases and 13,104 controls of East Asian ancestry.

Identification of ten variants associated with risk of estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer.

Most common breast cancer susceptibility variants have been identified through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of predominantly estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease. We conducted a GWAS using 21,468 ER-negative cases and 100,594 controls combined with 18,908 BRCA1 mutation carriers (9,414 with breast cancer), all of European origin. We identified independent associations at P < 5 × 10 with ten variants at nine new loci.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Survival: The Contribution of Tumor, Sociodemographic, Institutional, and Neighborhood Characteristics.

Purpose Racial/ethnic disparities in cancer survival in the United States are well documented, but the underlying causes are not well understood. We quantified the contribution of tumor, treatment, hospital, sociodemographic, and neighborhood factors to racial/ethnic survival disparities in California. Materials and Methods California Cancer Registry data were used to estimate population-based cancer-specific survival for patients diagnosed with breast, prostate, colorectal, or lung cancer between 2000 and 2013 for each racial/ethnic group (non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and separately each for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino) compared with non-Hispanic whites.