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To determine whether multiple sclerosis (MS) risk increases following primary infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), we conducted a nested case-control study including 305 individuals who developed MS and 610 matched controls selected among the over 8 million active-duty military personnel with serum stored in the Department of Defense Serum Repository. Time of EBV infection was determined by measuring antibody titers in serial serum samples collected before MS onset among cases, and on matched dates among controls. Ten (3.3%) cases and 32 (5.2%) controls were initially EBV negative. . All of the 10 EBV-negative cases became EBV positive before MS onset ; in contrast, only 35.7 % (10) of the 28 controls with follow-up samples seroconverted (exact p value = 0.0008). We conclude that MS risk is extremely low among individuals not infected with EBV, but it increases sharply in the same individuals following EBV infection.

A case-control study involving interviews with 672 female lung cancer patients and 735 population-based controls was conducted to investigate the high rates of lung cancer, notably adenocarcinoma, among women in Shanghai. Cigarette smoking was a strong risk factor, but accounted for only about one-fourth of all newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer. Most patients, particularly with adenocarcinoma, were life-long non-smokers. The risks of lung cancer were higher among women reporting tuberculosis and other pre-existing lung diseases. Hormonal factors were suggested by an increased risk associated with late menopause and by a gradient in the risk of adenocarcinoma with decreasing menstrual cycle length, with a 3-fold excess among women who had shorter cycles. Perhaps most intriguing were associations found between lung cancer and measures of exposure to cooking oil vapors. Risks increased with the numbers of meals cooked by either stir frying, deep frying or boiling; with the frequency of smokiness during cooking; and with the frequency of eye irritation during cooking. Use of rapeseed oil, whose volatiles following high-temperature cooking may be mutagenic, was also reported more often by the cancer patients. The findings thus confirm that factors other than smoking are responsible for the high risk of lung cancer among Chinese women and provide clues for further research, including the assessment of cooking practices.

Background Elevated Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibody titers are risk factors for MS, but the strength and consistency this association are not well characterized. Objectives To determine whether this association is confounded by vitamin D or modified by gender or race, and the usefulness of EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA) antibodies as a marker for MS. Methods We conducted a prospective study among US military personnel. Antibody titers against EBV antigens were measured in serum samples from 222 individuals who developed MS and 444 age, sex, and race/ethnicity matched controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate relative risks. Results MS risk increased with increasing titers of anti-EBNA complex (p<10−9) and anti-EBNA-1 (p=5.8E-9) titers. MS risk was 36-fold higher among individuals with anti-EBNA complex IgG titers ≥320 than among those with titers <20 (95%CI:9.6-136), and 8-fold higher among those with anti-EBNA-1 ≥320 than among those with anti-EBNA-1 <20 (95%CI:2.6-23). These associations were consistent across gender and race/ethnicity groups and independent from 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. Areas under the ROC curves were 0.67 for EBNA complex and 0.65 for EBNA-1. Conclusions Serum titers of pre-onset anti-EBNA antibodies are strong, robust markers of MS risk and could be useful in an MS risk score.