Socially isolated women had an elevated risk of mortality after a diagnosis of breast cancer, likely because of a lack of access to care, specifically beneficial caregiving from friends, relatives, and adult children.

Weight and weight gain were related to higher rates of breast cancer recurrence and mortality, but associations were most apparent in never-smoking women.

Fiber consumption predicted insulin levels, weight gain, and other CVD risk factors more strongly than did total or saturated fat consumption. High-fiber diets may protect against obesity and CVD by lowering insulin levels.

Sarcopenia is underrecognized in nonmetastatic breast cancer and occurs in over one-third of newly diagnosed patients. Measures of both sarcopenia and adiposity from clinically acquired CT scans in nonmetastatic patients provide significant prognostic information that outperform BMI and will help to guide interventions to optimize survival outcomes.

Telomeres are the DNA–protein complexes that protect the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. The cellular enzyme telomerase counteracts telomere shortening by adding telomeric DNA. A growing body of literature links shorter telomere length and lower telomerase activity with various age-related diseases and earlier mortality. Thus, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and telomerase activity are emerging both as biomarkers and contributing factors for age-related diseases. However, no clinical study has directly examined telomerase activity and telomere length in different lymphocyte subtypes isolated from the same donors, which could offer insight into the summary measure of leukocyte telomere maintenance. We report the first quantitative data in humans examining both levels of telomerase activity and telomere length in four lymphocyte subpopulations from the same donors—CD4+, CD8+CD28+ and CD8+CD28− T cells and B cells, as well as total PBMCs—in a cohort of healthy women. We found that B cells had the highest telomerase activity and longest telomere length; CD4+ T cells had slightly higher telomerase activity than CD8+CD28+ T cells, and similar telomere length. Consistent with earlier reports that CD8+CD28−T cells are replicatively senescent cells, they had the lowest telomerase activity and shortest telomere length. In addition, a higher percentage of CD8+CD28− T cells correlated with shorter total PBMC TL (r = −0.26, p = 0.05). Interestingly, telomerase activities of CD4+ and CD8+CD28+ T cells from the same individual were strongly correlated (r = 0.55, r < 0.001), indicating possible common mechanisms for telomerase activity regulation in these two cell subtypes. These data will facilitate the understanding of leukocyte aging and its relationship to human health.

Our results suggest a modestly elevated risk of breast cancer after longer periods of rotating night work. Additional studies are warranted to rule out small sample size or uncontrolled sources for confounding as alternative explanations.

Background Body composition may partially explain the U-shaped association between BMI and colorectal cancer (CRC) survival. Methods Muscle and adiposity at CRC diagnosis and survival were examined in a retrospective cohort using Kaplan Meier curves, multivariable Cox regression, and restricted cubic splines in 3,262 early stage (I-III) male (50%) and female (50%) patients. Sarcopenia was defined using optimal stratification and sex- and BMI-specific cut points. High adiposity was defined as the highest tertile of sex-specific total adipose tissue (TAT). Primary outcomes were overall mortality (OM) and CRC specific mortality (CRCsM). Results Forty-two percent of patients were sarcopenic. During 6.0 years of follow-up, 788 deaths occurred, including 433 from CRC. Sarcopenic patients had a 27% (HR 1.27; 95% CI 1.09, 1.48) higher risk of OM, than those who were not sarcopenic. Females with both low muscle and high adiposity had a 64% higher risk of OM (HR 1.64; 95% CI 1.05, 2.57) when compared to females with adequate muscle and lower adiposity. The lowest risk of OM was seen in patients with a BMI between 25-<30-kg/m2, a range associated with the greatest number of patients (58.6%) who were not at increased risk of OM due to either low muscle or high adiposity. Conclusions Sarcopenia is prevalent among non-metastatic CRC patients, and should, along with adiposity be a standard oncological marker. Impact Our findings suggest a biological explanation for the obesity paradox in CRC and refute the notion that the association between overweight and lower mortality is due solely to methodological biases.

Objectives We assessed the association between depression and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and cardiac events among individuals without baseline coronary heart disease (CHD). Background Depression is a risk factor for cardiac events and mortality among those with CHD, possibly from arrhythmia. Methods We studied depressive symptoms, and a proxy variable for clinical depression consisting of severe symptoms and/or antidepressant medication use, and their relationship to cardiac events in the Nurses’ Health Study. Questionnaires in 1992, 1996, and 2000 assessed symptoms with the Mental Health Index (MHI-5), and antidepressant use was assessed in 1996 and 2000. Primary endpoints included SCD, fatal CHD, and non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI). Results Among 63,469 women without prior CHD/stroke in 1992, 7.9% had MHI-5 scores (<53) previously found to predict clinical depression. Depressive symptoms were associated with CHD events, and the relationship was strongest for fatal CHD, where the association remained significant even after controlling for CHD risk factors (HR=1.49; 95% CI 1.11–2.00 for MHI-5 score<53). In models from 1996 onward, our proxy variable for clinical depression was most associated with SCD in multivariable models (HR=2.33, 95% CI 1.47–3.70), and this risk was primarily due to a specific relationship between antidepressant use and SCD (HR=3.34, 95% CI 2.03–5.50). Conclusions In this cohort of women without baseline CHD, depressive symptoms were associated with fatal CHD, and a measure of clinical depression including antidepressant use was specifically associated with SCD. Although antidepressant use may be a marker of worse depression, its specific association with SCD merits further study. CONDENSED ABSTRACT We prospectively analyzed the association between depression and cardiac events in the Nurses’ Health Study. Symptoms of depression as measured by Mental Health Index (MHI-5) score were directly associated with risk of CHD events, and the relationship was strongest for fatal CHD. A proxy variable for clinical depression comprised of MHI-5 score<53 or antidepressant use was strongly associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD), primarily due to a specific relationship between antidepressant use and SCD. Although antidepressant use may be a marker of worse depression, its specific association with SCD merits further study.