Association between Alcohol Consumption and Colorectal Cancer Risk

Stability of a binge drinking model with delay

A more realistic binge drinking model with time delay is introduced. Time delay is used to represent the time lag of the immunity against drinking in our model. For the model without the time delay, using Routh-Hurwitz criterion, we obtain that the alcohol-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable if [Formula: see text]. We also obtain that the unique alcohol-present equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable if [Formula: see text]. For the model with time delay, the local stability of all the equilibria is derived. Furthermore, regardless of the time delay length, using comparison theorem and iteration technique, we obtain that the alcohol-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable under certain conditions. Numerical simulations are also conducted to illustrate and extend our analytic results.

Cancer incidence in eastern Morocco: cancer patterns and incidence trends, 2005-2012

BACKGROUND

Cancer is one of the major health problems worldwide. In this article, we present for the first time the cancer incidence trends, the distribution and the socioeconomic profile of incident cancer cases in Eastern Morocco over a period of eight years.

METHODS

Retrospective descriptive study of patients diagnosed with cancer at the Hassan II Regional Oncology Center (ROC) since it was created in October 2005 until December 2012. During the study period, the ROC was the only hospital specialized in cancer care in Eastern Morocco.

RESULTS

A total of 7872 incident cases of cancer were registered in Eastern Morocco. Among these incident cases 5220 cases were women and 2652 were men, with a female to male ratio of 1.97. The mean age at diagnosis was 58 years for males and 52 for females and 94% of the patients aged over 30 years. For both sexes combined and for all cancer sites, breast cancer was the commonest followed by cervix uteri, colon-rectum, lung, nasopharynx, and stomach cancers. The most common cancer in women was breast cancer, followed respectively by cervix uteri cancer, colon-rectum cancer, ovary cancer, and stomach cancer. In men, the lung cancer ranked first, followed respectively by colon-rectum cancer, nasopharynx cancer, prostate cancer, and stomach cancer. For most cancers, crude incidence rates (CR) have increased significantly. The CR for all cancers combined has increased from 56.6 to 80.3 per 100,000 females and from 32.3 to 42.6 per 100,000 males during the study period. Patients profile analysis showed that 79% of cancer patients were from urban areas, 83% were unemployed and 85% had no health insurance.

CONCLUSIONS

The distribution of cancers in Eastern Morocco is different from those observed in other regions of Morocco. Unlike most countries, women were much more affected with cancer than men in Eastern Morocco. More importantly, the rates of many cancers are rising. Therefore, our data justify the need to develop effective programs for cancer control and prevention in Eastern Morocco. A better access to cancer care should be a priority of the health policies, given that the majority of cancer patients in Eastern Morocco are unemployed, and do not have medical care coverage.

Alcohol Consumption-Related Metabolites in Relation to Colorectal Cancer and Adenoma: Two Case-Control Studies Using Serum Biomarkers

Alcohol is a known carcinogen that may be associated with colorectal cancer. However, most epidemiologic studies assess alcoholic beverage consumption using self-reported data, leading to potential exposure misclassification. Biomarkers of alcohol consumption may provide an alternative, complementary approach that reduces misclassification and incorporates individual differences in alcohol metabolism. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between previously identified alcohol consumption-related metabolites and colorectal cancer and adenoma using serum metabolomics data from two studies. Data on colorectal cancer were obtained from a nested case-control study of 502 US adults (252 cases, 250 controls) within the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Data on colorectal adenoma were obtained from a case-control study of 197 US adults (120 cases, 77 controls) from the Navy Colon Adenoma Study. Unconditional multivariable logistic regression models were fit to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for eight alcohol consumption-related metabolites identified in a previous analysis: ethyl glucuronide; 4-androstene-3beta,17beta-diol disulfate 1; 5-alpha-androstan-3beta,17beta-diol disulfate; 16-hydroxypalmitate; bilirubin (E,Z or Z,E); cyclo (-leu-pro); dihomo-linoleate (20:2n6); and palmitoleate (16:1n7). We found no clear association between these alcohol consumption-related metabolites and either endpoint. However, we did observe an inverse association between cyclo (-leu-pro) and colorectal adenoma that was only observed in the highest metabolite quantile (OR _{4th vs. 1st Quantile} = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.12–0.78; P-trend = 0.047), but no association for colorectal cancer. In conclusion, there were no adverse associations between alcohol consumption-related metabolites and colorectal cancer or adenoma.

Impact of media coverage on the drinking dynamics in the scale-free network

A binge drinking model with the impact of media in the scale-free network is proposed. The basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] is derived by the next generation matrix method. Stability of the alcohol free equilibrium is proved by the comparison theorem. Existence and uniqueness of the alcohol present equilibrium is also obtained. Furthermore, the permanence of the system and the influence of media coverage on the drinking dynamics are studied, and the difference between our model on heterogeneous and homogeneous networks is also discussed. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate our theoretical results. Our results show that media coverage does not change the value of [Formula: see text] but it is an effective measure in reducing alcohol problems.