No abstract

Calcium and vitamin D supplementation did not reduce invasive breast cancer incidence in postmenopausal women. In addition, 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were not associated with subsequent breast cancer risk. These findings do not support a relationship between total vitamin D intake and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels with breast cancer risk.

In order to determine geographically related intratypic variation in human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 and 18 isolates that could be associated with lesion development, data were analysed from an ongoing cohort study of the natural course of infection of HPVs and cervical neoplasia. Testing for HPVs was carried out by PCR and molecular variants of these HPVs were characterized by sequence analysis of the long control region and by dot blot hybridization of the E6 and L1 genes. Tests for HPV were done in multiple first-year specimens from 1690 women enrolled in a cancer screening program from 1993 to 1997. Subjects were followed-up by cytology and cervicography for detection of cervical lesions. Seven variants of HPV-16 and four of HPV-18 were detected in one or more specimens from 65 subjects. The same variant was found in specimens taken on different visits from each case of persistent infection. Overall, non-European variants tended to persist more frequently [odds ratio (OR) l 4n5 ; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1n6-12n4] than European (E) variants (OR l 2n5 ; 95 % CI, 1n3-4n9), relative to the risk of persistence for nononcogenic HPVs. In addition, non-E variants were more strongly associated with risk of both prevalent (age-and race-adjusted OR l 172n2 ; 95 % CI, 47n1-630n1) and incident [relative risk (RR) l 22n5 ; 95 % CI, 6n0-83n9] high-grade lesions than E variants (prevalent lesions OR l 46n3; 95 % CI, 15n5-138n0 and incident lesons RR l 6n1 ; 95 % CI, 1n3-27n4), relative to the risk for HPVnegative women. Although consistent, the latter differences were not statistically significant. If confirmed in other populations, measurement of intratypic variation of HPV-16 and -18 has the potential to serve as an ancillary tool in cervical cancer screening.

The risk of progression for moderate dysplasia was intermediate between the risks for mild and severe dysplasia; thus, the moderate category may represent a clinically useful distinction. The majority of untreated mild dysplasias were recorded as regressing to yield a normal smear within 2 years.

Circulating levels of total IGF-I or IGFBP-1 were not associated with risk of total coronary events or ischemic stroke among older adults, whereas low IGFBP-3 level was associated with increased risk of incident coronary events.