In 1987, the first Regional Prostate Cancer Register was set up in the South-East health-care region of Sweden. Other health-care regions joined and since 1998 virtually all prostate cancer (PCa) cases are registered in the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden to provide data for quality assurance, bench marking and clinical research. NPCR includes data on tumour stage, Gleason score, serum level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and primary treatment. In 2008, the NPCR was linked to a number of other population-based registers by use of the personal identity number. This database named Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden (PCBaSe) has now been extended with more cases, longer follow-up and a selection of two control series of men free of PCa at the time of sampling, as well as information on brothers of men diagnosed with PCa, resulting in PCBaSe 2.0. This extension allows for studies with case-control, cohort or longitudinal case-only design on aetiological factors, pharmaceutical prescriptions and assessment of long-term outcomes. The NPCR covers >96% of all incident PCa cases registered by the Swedish Cancer Register, which has an underreporting of <3.7%. The NPCR is used to assess trends in incidence, treatment and outcome of men with PCa. Since the national registers linked to PCBaSe are complete, studies from PCBaSe 2.0 are truly population based.

An inverse association between allergic conditions and glioma risk has been reported previously. In this large population-based case-control study, the authors identified cases diagnosed with glioma or meningioma in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and southeast England between 2000 and 2004. Detailed information on self-reported physician-diagnosed allergic conditions was collected from 1,527 glioma cases, 1,210 meningioma cases, and 3,309 randomly selected controls. Logistic regression showed an odds ratio of 0.70 (95% confidence interval: 0.61, 0.80) for glioma associated with a diagnosis of any of asthma, hay fever, eczema, or other type of allergy. The risk estimates for glioma were around 0.65 for each allergic condition (asthma, eczema, hay fever, and food allergy), and the 95% confidence intervals were equally consistent, at around 0.55, 0.80. The reduced risks of glioma related to eczema, hay fever, and allergy overall, but not asthma, were confined to current rather than past conditions. Meningioma risk was not associated with allergic conditions, except for eczema (odds ratio = 0.74, 95% confidence interval: 0.60, 0.91). Our results show a reduced risk for glioma associated primarily with current allergic conditions. If this is etiologic, it has implications for the understanding of how allergic conditions might reduce the tumor risk.

The etiology of brain tumors is largely unknown. Prior observations have implicated gender-specific hormones in the pathogenesis of these tumors. In a population-based case-control study, the authors identified all women aged 20-69 years who had been diagnosed with meningioma or glioma during 2000-2002 in four regions of Sweden. Controls were randomly selected from the study base. Detailed information on hormone usage, including use of hormonal contraceptives, hormonal treatment for gynecologic problems, and hormone replacement therapy, was collected from 178 meningioma cases, 115 glioma cases, and 323 controls. Data were analyzed using unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for age, residential area, education, and parity. An increased relative risk of meningioma was found among postmenopausal women for ever use of hormone replacement therapy, with an odds ratio of 1.7 (95% confidence interval: 1.0, 2.8). Women who had used long-acting hormonal contraceptives (subdermal implants, injections, or hormonal intrauterine devices) had an increased risk of meningioma; the odds ratio for at least 10 years of use was 2.7 (95% confidence interval: 0.9, 7.5). Hormone usage was not associated with glioma risk in this study. The findings suggest that the use of female sex steroids may increase the risk of meningioma.

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BackgroundImproved cancer survival poses important questions about future life conditions of the survivor. We examined the possible influence of a breast cancer diagnosis on subsequent working and marital status, sickness absence and income.MaterialsWe conducted a matched cohort study including 4,761 women 40–59 years of age and registered with primary breast cancer in a Swedish population-based clinical register during 1993–2003, and 2,3805 women without breast cancer. Information on socioeconomic standing was obtained from a social database 1 year prior and 3 and 5 years following the diagnosis. In Conditional Poisson Regression models, risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis.FindingsThree years after diagnosis, women who had had breast cancer more often had received sickness benefits (RR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.40–1.58) or disability pension (RR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.37–1.58) than had women without breast cancer. We found no effect on income (RR = 0.99), welfare payments (RR = 0.98), or marital status (RR = 1.02). A higher use of sickness benefits and disability pension was evident in all stages of the disease, although the difference in use of sickness benefits decreased after 5 years, whereas the difference in disability pension increased. For woman with early stage breast cancer, the sickness absence was higher following diagnosis among those with low education, who had undergone mastectomy, and had received chemo- or hormonal therapy. Neither tumour size nor presence of lymph nodes metastasis was associated with sickness absence after adjustment for treatment.InterpretationEven in early stage breast cancer, a diagnosis negatively influences working capacity both 3 and 5 years after diagnosis, and it seems that the type of treatment received had the largest impact. A greater focus needs to be put on rehabilitation of breast cancer patients, work-place adaptations and research on long-term sequelae of treatment.

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Adherence to long-term pharmacological treatment for chronic conditions is often less than optimal. Till date, a limited number of population-based studies have assessed adherence to adjuvant hormonal therapy in breast cancer, a therapy with proven benefits in terms of reductions of recurrence and mortality. We aimed to examine rates of adherence and early discontinuation in Sweden where prescribed medications are subsidized for all residents and made available at reduced out-of-pocket costs. Individual-level data were obtained from Regional Clinical Quality Breast Cancer Registers, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, and several other population-based registers. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze factors associated with adherence to prescribed medication for a period of 3 years. Between January 1 and December 31, 2005, 1,741 patients in central Sweden were identified with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, and at least one prescription dispensation of either tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor. Of these women, 1,193 (69%) were fully adherent to therapy for 3 years (medication possession ratio of 80% or higher and a maximum of 180 days between refills). During the 3-year follow-up, 215 women (12%) had prematurely discontinued therapy. Adherence was positively associated with younger age, large tumor size, being married, and being born in the Nordic countries, while no clear association was observed with education or income. During the 3 years of follow-up, 31% of women were non-adherent to therapy. Further efforts must be undertaken to promote adherence over the entire recommended treatment period.

Female sex hormones have previously been suggested as possible risk factors for brain tumors, but published studies have reported conflicting results. We conducted a population-based case-control study of glioma (n = 626) and meningioma (n = 906) cases and randomly selected controls stratified on age and geographic region (n = 1,774) in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for glioma and meningioma in relation to reproductive factors. A decreased glioma risk was associated with ever-pregnancy compared with neverpregnancy [OR, 0.8; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.6-1.0]. Meningioma risk among women ages <50 years was increased in relation to number of pregnancies leading to a live birth (OR, 1.8; 95% CI: 1.1-2.8 for giving birth to 3 children compared with nulliparous women; P trend among parous women = 0.01). This relation was not found for older women. Breastfeeding among parous women increased the glioma risk (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.3-3.9 for breast-feeding 36 months or more compared with breast-feeding 3 months or less). Menopausal status and age at menopause were not associated with meningioma or glioma risk. Our findings imply that reproductive hormones may influence the occurrence of meningioma and glioma.