To clarify whether reproductive factors have an impact on gastric cancer in Japanese females, a case-control study was conducted using data from the Hospital-based Epidemiologic Research Program at Aichi Cancer Center (HERPACC), Japan. The study subjects included 365 postmenopausal women with gastric cancer and 1,825 age-class frequencymatched noncancer outpatients presenting at Aichi Cancer Center in 1988 -1998. Cases were further divided with regard to the anatomic subsite (upper third, middle third, lower third) and histologic subtypes (differentiated, nondifferentiated) and the association was evaluated using odds ratios Despite a decreasing trend, gastric cancer remains a major public health problem in Japan. The latest estimate shows that 22% of Japanese cancers occurred in the stomach in 1996, 1 and gastric cancers accounted for 18% of total cancer deaths in 1998. 2 It is well known that gastric cancer as a whole is more common in males, the male to female ratio being 1.5-3 in the incidence, 3 although this varies with the age group, 4 -6 values only being greater than 1 in middle-and old-aged groups. These observations suggest that the etiology of female gastric cancer may be different between the young and the old and therefore they should be considered separately.A previous study on gastric cancer in young individuals indicated an elevated risk of gastric cancer with pregnancy and delivery episode 7 and suggested that the sex hormones can influence the development of this cancer. 8 -10 On the other hand, the male predominance of this cancer in older age groups allows us to speculate some link not only with lifestyle factors such as smoking and dietary habits but also with a protective function of femalerelated factors. Our working hypothesis for our study was that whereas a male predominant lifestyle, including smoking, may increase the risk, long term exposure to female-related factors over a long fertile life may reduce the likelihood of gastric cancer. To our knowledge, epidemiologic studies targeting this issue hitherto have only been conducted in Western countries 11-21 and the results were not consistent, suggesting the need for separate analysis by subsite and histologic subtype. 17 To gain further epidemiologic evidence on any association between gastric cancer and female-related factors such as menstrual and reproductive factors among postmenopausal women, a comparative case-control study was therefore undertaken using data from the Hospital-based Epidemiologic Research Program at Aichi Cancer Center (HERPACC). This study aimed to clarify whether these factors exhibit any impact on development of different types of gastric cancers in postmenopausal Japanese women. MATERIAL AND METHODSHERPACC was begun in Nagoya, Japan, in 1988, with information on lifestyle factors routinely collected from all first-visit outpatients, using a self-administered questionnaire checked by a trained interviewer. Each patient was asked about his or her lifestyle when healthy or before the current symptoms developed...

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Seropositivity of anti-Helicobacter pylori antibody (HPto everyday intake was 1.38 (1.05-1.83) for less frequent intake, while intake frequencies of green tea, miso soup, and pickled vegetables (tsukemono) were not. Multivariate analysis including sex, 10-year age group, residence, education, and fruit intake showed that all factors except sex were significant. This is the largest study of HP infection among Japanese Brazilians, and the results indicated a similar pattern of age-specific infection rate to that for Japanese in Japan.Key words: Helicobacter pylori -Seropositivity -Japanese Brazilians -Lifestyle factorsSince Helicobacter pylori (HP) was identified in 1982, the bacterium has been widely accepted as a pathogen related to digestive ulcer, atrophic gastritis, gastric cancer, and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma.1-4) HP infection occurs worldwide, and the prevalence is higher in developing countries than developed countries. 5,6) It is thought that improved social and sanitary conditions prevent person-to-person transmission, though no clear evidence exists as to which route of infection or source of HP predominates. 6, 7) Several studies indicated that crowded living conditions, family size, and sharing a bedroom predispose to HP infection. 8) Most investigators believe that HP is transmitted directly by fecal-oral and/or oral-oral route.5-7) An increase in the seropositivity with age was observed in developed countries, and this is considered due to the birth cohort effect, in that the older generations were under poorer sanitary conditions during their childhood. 9)Brazil has the world's largest population of Japanese outside Japan. The first group of 781 Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908. According to a report by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of permanent residents of Japanese nationality in Brazil was 83 803 in 1998 and the population of Japanese descendants is estimated to be 1.3 million. Most Japanese Brazilians belong to Japanese communities, which preserve Japanese language and culture through many activities such as Japanese language school for children, Japanese folk dance parties (bon-odori), culinary and music festivals, and sport competitions (undo-kai). The communities also play an important role in health promotion through health checkup and education.A previous study on Japanese Brazilians reported that the HP infection rate evaluated by means of a serological test among those aged 40-59 years in São Paulo city was 76.8% (129/168), 71.6% for 81 males and 81.7% for 87 females.

Although this is the first report on the association between breast cancer risk and IL-1B C-31T, the observed association seems plausible in a biological sense.

OBJECTIVE:To analyze the prevalence of IgG antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in patients infected with HIV/AIDS and the association of demographic and social variables. METHODS:Descriptive cross-sectional study that included the analysis of sociodemographic data and laboratory findings of 200 patients infected with HIV/AIDS treated in a laboratory unit in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2010. Individual data for all participants were collected with a self-administered questionnaire. Plasma samples were tested for IgG testing of anti-T. gondii using hemagglutination for the analysis of antibodies. RESULTS:The seroprevalence of IgG anti-T. gondii was 46.0% (95%CI 39.2;52.9), 39.3% (95%CI 29.5;50.0) in men and 50.9% (95%CI 41.9;59.8) in women, with no difference between sex (OR 1.30; 95%CI 0.95;1.77; p = 0.12). Ages ranged from 10 to 60 years, with a higher prevalence of infection in older age groups, but with no significant difference between them. Regularly consuming cattle meat (OR 1.74; 95%CI 1.04;2.89, p = 0.05), breeding cats/dogs (OR 6.18; 95%CI 3.60;10.62, p < 0.000) and having regular contact with soil (OR 3.38; 95%CI 2.19;5.21; p < 0.000) were significantly associated with risk of latent infection. CONCLUSIONS:Toxoplasmosis is an infection with high prevalence in Mozambique. Cultural and behavioral aspects increase the risk. Toxoplasmosis can be responsible in our environment by the great burden of morbidity and mortality associated with meningoencephalic injuries in patients with HIV/AIDS.

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The present study demonstrated that frequent rice intake was a risk factor for atrophic gastritis among the H. pylori-infected Japanese-Brazilians, suggesting that diet including rice plays a role in the step from H. pylori infection to gastric atrophy.