Symptomatic Atherosclerotic Disease and Decreased Risk of Cancer-Specific Mortality: A Prospective, Population-Based Study (NEDICES)

Dissimilar associations of same metabolic parameters with main chronic noncommunicable diseases (cancer vs some other NCDs)

Hormone-dependent tissues' cancers (mainly breast and endometrial and several others) are among the most frequent malignancies in adults and are often discussed in context of their correlation with other chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), for example, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions, and their risk factors, which may also be hormone metabolic. An idea that is often expressed delineates common factors leading to NCDs of malignant and nonmalignant nature. However, this idea is not always confirmed by study results. The reasons for this discrepancy are not clear and require further analysis. This editorial tries to show the importance of this problem with a few examples (in particular, by attracting information on the role of birthweight, adult height and family history of diabetes) which may help us understand some mechanisms behind interconnections of major NCDs, including cancer.

Post-Stroke Cancer Risk among Postmenopausal Women: The Women's Health Initiative

BACKGROUND

Associations between a history of cancer and higher subsequent stroke risk have been established. However, whether a history of stroke is associated with higher subsequent cancer risk, especially for cancers with overlapping risk factors for stroke, is unknown. Therefore, we examined whether a history of stroke was associated with subsequent cancer risk and tumor site, by race/ethnicity, among postmenopausal women.

METHODS

Using data from 145,075 participants in the Women's Health Initiative observational study and clinical trials (1993-2014), we used Cox proportional hazards models to predict cancer risk, comparing women with and without a history of stroke. Bivariate and multivariate models were estimated, accounting for potential confounders and death as a competing risk.

RESULTS

Women with a history of stroke survived roughly 3 fewer years than women without such history. The average time between incident stroke and incident cancer was 4.8 years. In adjusted competing risk models, women with a history of stroke had a lower cancer risk compared with women without such a history (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75-0.88). The magnitude of the association between a history of stroke and time to incident cancer was similar across racial/ethnic groups.

DISCUSSION

Postmenopausal women with a history of stroke had a significantly lower risk of subsequent cancer compared with women with no history of stroke. Although the risk of certain cancers were greater for African American compared with White women, the association between a stroke history and cancer risk did not vary by race/ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS

Postmenopausal women with a history of stroke, who survive long enough to develop cancer, have a lower risk of cancer than women without such a history. Future studies should examine whether behavioral or clinical characteristics explain and/or mediate this association.

Evaluation of general and coronary atherosclerosis and malignant disease demonstrates inverse correlations for specific cancer types as well as cancer in general

CONTEXT

Historical data has shown that cancer in general has been associated with less atherosclerosis while recently several studies have demonstrated more heterogeneous relations. However, most investigations were carried out clinically or radiographically and updated exhaustive, comprehensive autopsy studies are lacking. In our study, we aimed to assess the relationship between malignancy and grade of atherosclerosis in different locations (general, coronary) in a large study population over the course of 14 years.

METHODS

2370 patients (autopsy reports) were analyzed retrospectively in regard to various parameters including demographics, organ weights, distribution and severity of atherosclerosis and presence or absence of malignancy.

RESULTS

Our study shows that malignant disease is usually associated with less general and coronary atherosclerosis (p=0.002 and p<0.001). Especially breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer as well as lymphomas/lymphoid leukaemia and sarcomas were associated with significantly less general and coronary AS (p-values<0.001-0.031). In addition, a positive correlation between coronary atherosclerosis and heart weight could be detected (ρ=0.302, p<0.001). As a common observation, male sex was associated with increased severity of general and coronary atherosclerosis in both cancer and non-cancer groups (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that an inverse correlation between atherosclerosis and cancer in general is still sound today despite tremendous changes and advances in therapy strategies and diagnostics. Additionally, we could highlight that the effect was most pronounced in breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, sarcomas and lymphomas/lymphoid leukaemia.

Education and risk of incident dementia during the premotor and motor phases of essential tremor (NEDICES)

Individuals with late-onset essential tremor (ET) (e.g., older adults) seem to have an increased prevalence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, and a higher risk of incident dementia. It is well-known that education has a protective role against dementia in individuals without a pre-existing neurologic disorder, but evidence regarding the maintenance of this effect during the premotor and motor phases of ET is unknown. Our aim was to determine the influence of education on the risk of dementia in a population-based cohort of ET patients and controls. In a prospective study (Neurological Disorders in Central Spain), participants ≥65 years old were evaluated twice: at baseline (1994-1995) and at follow-up (1997-1998). There were 3 groups: premotor (i.e., participants first diagnosed with incident ET at follow-up), prevalent ET (i.e., participants diagnosed with ET at baseline and at follow-up), and controls. Participants were stratified into lower education (≤primary studies) versus higher education (≥secondary studies) categories. Dementia risk was estimated using Cox proportional-hazards models (higher education control group = reference category). Among the participants, 3878 had a mean duration of follow-up of 3.2 years. Eight (16.7%) of 48 lower education premotor ET patients developed incident dementia versus 1 (3.3%) of 30 higher education premotor ET patients, 9 (7.1%) of 126 lower education prevalent ET patients, 7 (8.8%) of 80 higher education prevalent ET patients, and 92 (4.9%) of 1892 lower education controls (P < 0.001). In comparison to the higher education controls, the adjusted hazard ratios for incident dementia were 5.84 (lower education premotor ET, P < 0.001); 1.36 (higher education premotor ET, P = 0.76); 2.13 (lower education prevalent ET, P = 0.04); 2.79 (higher education prevalent ET, P = 0.01); and 1.66 (lower education controls, P = 0.01). Our results suggest that a higher educational attainment may ameliorate the risk of incident dementia during the premotor phase of ET, but not in the motor phase.

Parkinson's disease and colorectal cancer risk-A nested case control study

BACKGROUND

A pro-inflammatory gut microbiota was described in both Parkinson's disease and colorectal cancer (CRC) and recently α-synuclein was demonstrated in the enteric nervous system. We sought to evaluate the association between Parkinson's disease and CRC.

METHODS

We conducted a nested case-control study using a large primary-care database. Cases were defined as all individuals with CRC. Up to 4 controls were matched with each case based on age, sex, practice-site and duration of follow-up. The primary exposure of interest was diagnosis of Parkinson's disease prior to CRC as well as disease duration, and Parkinson's specific therapies. The primary analysis was a conditional logistic-regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI).

RESULTS

The study included 22,093 CRC cases and 85,833 matched controls. Past medical history of Parkinson's disease >1 year before index-date was associated with lower CRC risk (OR 0.74, 95%CI 0.59-0.94). The inverse association was more prominent among females compared to males (0.64, 95%CI 0.42-0.96 and 0.8, 95%CI 0.60-1.07, respectively). While patients who received no therapy or therapy with dopamine agonists had a non-significant decrease in cancer risk, patients who were treated with dopamine had a non-significant elevated cancer risk.

CONCLUSION

Parkinson's disease is inversely associated with CRC risk.