Objective To describe reproductive and lifestyle correlates of surgically confirmed fibroids. Design Prospective Cohort Study Setting The California Teachers Study (CTS), an ongoing prospective study of over 133,000 female teachers and school administrators identified through the California State Teachers Retirement System. Patients CTS cohort members reporting no prior history of fibroids were ascertained prospectively for surgical diagnosis of fibroids using hospital patient discharge records. Main Outcome Measure(s) Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression methods were used to assess the association of self-reported menstrual, reproductive, and lifestyle characteristics with fibroids, using ages at the start and end of follow-up (in months) to define time on study. Hazard rate ratios, presented as relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), were estimated. Results The strongest risk factor we identified was African-American race/ethnicity, as compared to non-Latina white women. We observed a reduced risk of fibroids for postmenopausal women in comparison to premenopausal women, but use of hormone replacement therapies (regardless of formulation) were associated with an increased risk. Other risk factors included race, a family history of fibroids, being overweight and drinking alcohol, Smoking and diabetes were associated with a decreased risk of fibroids. Conclusions These observations provide a more detailed epidemiologic profile of women with surgically managed fibroids

IntroductionAlthough pregnancy-related factors such as nulliparity and late age at first full-term pregnancy are well-established risk factors for invasive breast cancer, the roles of these factors in the natural history of breast cancer development remain unclear.MethodsAmong 52,464 postmenopausal women participating in the California Teachers Study (CTS), 624 were diagnosed with breast carcinoma in situ (CIS) and 2,828 with invasive breast cancer between 1995 and 2007. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression methods were used to estimate relative risks associated with parity, age at first full-term pregnancy, breastfeeding, nausea or vomiting during pregnancy, and preeclampsia.ResultsCompared with never-pregnant women, an increasing number of full-term pregnancies was associated with greater risk reduction for both breast CIS and invasive breast cancer (both P trend < 0.01). Women having four or more full-term pregnancies had a 31% lower breast CIS risk (RR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.51 to 0.93) and 18% lower invasive breast cancer risk (RR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.72 to 0.94). Parous women whose first full-term pregnancy occurred at age 35 years or later had a 118% greater risk for breast CIS (RR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.36 to 3.49) and 27% greater risk for invasive breast cancer (RR = 1.27, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.65) than those whose first full-term pregnancy occurred before age 21 years. Furthermore, parity was negatively associated with the risk of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) or ER+/progesterone receptor-positive (PR+) while age at first full-term pregnancy was positively associated with the risk of ER+ or ER+/PR+ invasive breast cancer. Neither of these factors was statistically significantly associated with the risk of ER-negative (ER-) or ER-/PR- invasive breast cancer, tests for heterogeneity between subtypes did not reach statistical significance. No clear associations were detected for other pregnancy-related factors.ConclusionsThese results provide some epidemiologic evidence that parity and age at first full-term pregnancy are involved in the development of breast cancer among postmenopausal women. The role of these factors in risk of in situ versus invasive, and hormone receptor-positive versus -negative breast cancer merits further exploration.

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It is unclear whether hypertension and antihypertensive medication use are associated with breast cancer. In order to examine these associations, we conducted a case-control study among women aged 50-75 years. Breast cancer cases were ascertained via a populationbased cancer registry (n ¼ 523) and controls were ascertained via random-digit-dialing (n ¼ 131). Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire which queried history of hypertension, antihypertensive medication use and risk factors. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI), diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, menopausal status, family history of breast or ovarian cancer, age at first full-term pregnancy and education.History of treated hypertension was associated with significant increased risk of breast cancer (OR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.04-3.03) and this association appeared only in women with BMI X25 kg/m 2 (OR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.12-4.71). Diuretic use was also associated with elevated breast cancer risk (OR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.07-3.01). The risk associated with diuretic use increased with duration of use (P for trend, o0.01). Use of other blood pressure medications was not found to be associated with breast cancer risk. These results support a positive association between treated hypertension, diuretic use and breast cancer risk among women aged 50-75 years.

Relatively few studies have assessed the relationship between dietary intakes and survival after breast cancer diagnosis. We investigated the influence of diet, including dietary fat (percentage energy), fiber, vegetable, and fruit intakes, and micronutrients (folate, carotenoids, and vitamin C) on overall survival in women diagnosed with breast cancer. Subjects were postmenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer (N = 516) between 1994 and 1995 with a mean survival time of 80 mo (SD: 18). Subjects completed a food frequency questionnaire for the year prior to diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards models were used to measure the relationship between dietary intakes and death due to any cause after breast cancer diagnosis. In the multivariate analysis, we found that the hazard ratio [HR and 95% confidence interval (CI)] of dying in the highest tertile compared to the lowest tertile of total fat, fiber, vegetable, and fruit was 3.12 (95% CI = 1.79-5.44), 0.48 (95% CI = 0.27-0.86), 0.57 (95% CI = 0.35-0.94), and 0.63 (95% CI = 0.38-1.05), respectively (P

Background: Although recent reviews have suggested active smoking to be a risk factor for breast cancer, the association with passive smoke exposure remains controversial. This risk association was explored in a large prospective study of women, the California Teachers Study. Methods: Detailed lifetime information on passive smoke exposure by setting (home, work, or social) and by age of exposure was collected in 1997 from 57,523 women who were lifetime nonsmokers and had no history of breast cancer. In the ensuing decade, a total of 1,754 women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Cox proportional hazards models were fit to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) associated with several lifetime passive smoke exposure metrics. Results: For all breast cancer, measures of higher lifetime passive smoking intensity and duration were asso-

BackgroundWe investigated the association between hypertension, antihypertensive (AH) medication use, and breast cancer in a large prospective study, the California Teachers Study (CTS).MethodsInformation on history of hypertension and lifetime regular use of AH medications was collected from 114,549 women in 1995–1996. Among them, 4,151 invasive breast cancers were diagnosed between 1995 and 2006. Additional information on AH use was collected from 73,742 women in 2000–2001, and 1,714 of these women were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for breast cancer.ResultsUse of AH medication for ≥5 years, when compared with no use, was associated with a modest increased risk of invasive breast cancer (RR = 1.18, 95%CI 1.02–1.36). This increased risk appeared to be confined to estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors (RR = 1.21, 95%CI 1.03–1.43) and pre-/peri-menopausal women (RR = 1.58, 95%CI 1.11–2.25).ConclusionsIncreased risk of invasive breast cancer was observed for long-term (≥5 years) AH use, and this appeared to be confined to ER + breast cancer and younger women.

Shorter survival has been associated with low socioeconomic status (SES) among elderly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients; however it remains unknown whether the same relationship holds for younger patients. We explored the California Cancer Registry (CCR), to investigate this relationship in adolescent and young adult (AYA) NHL patients diagnosed from 1996 to 2005. A case-only survival analysis was conducted to examine demographic and clinical variables hypothesized to be related to survival. Included in the final analysis were 3,489 incident NHL cases. In the multivariate analyses, all-cause mortality (ACM) was higher in individuals who had later stage at diagnosis (P < .05) or did not receive first-course chemotherapy (P < .05). There was also a significant gradient decrease in survival, with higher ACM at each decreasing quintile of SES (P < .001). Overall results were similar for lymphoma-specific mortality. In the race/ethnicity stratified analyses, only non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs) had a significant SES-ACM trend (P < .001). Reduced overall and lymphoma-specific survival was associated with lower SES in AYAs with NHL, although a significant trend was only observed for NHWs.