The debate on the potential carcinogenic effect of dietary acrylamide is open. In consideration of the recent findings from large prospective investigations, we conducted an updated meta-analysis on acrylamide intake and the risk of cancer at several sites. Up to July 2014, we identified 32 publications. We performed meta-analyses to calculate the summary relative risk (RR) of each cancer site for the highest versus lowest level of intake and for an increment of 10 µg/day of dietary acrylamide, through fixed-effects or random-effects models, depending on the heterogeneity test. Fourteen cancer sites could be examined. No meaningful associations were found for most cancers considered. The summary RRs for high versus low acrylamide intake were 0.87 for oral and pharyngeal, 1.14 for esophageal, 1.03 for stomach, 0.94 for colorectal, 0.93 for pancreatic, 1.10 for laryngeal, 0.88 for lung, 0.96 for breast, 1.06 for endometrial, 1.12 for ovarian, 1.00 for prostate, 0.93 for bladder and 1.13 for lymphoid malignancies. The RR was of borderline significance only for kidney cancer (RR = 1.20; 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.00-1.45). All the corresponding continuous estimates ranged between 0.95 and 1.03, and none of them was significant. Among never-smokers, borderline associations with dietary acrylamide emerged for endometrial (RR = 1.23; 95% CI, 1.00-1.51) and ovarian (RR = 1.39; 95% CI, 0.97-2.00) cancers. This systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies indicates that dietary acrylamide is not related to the risk of most common cancers. A modest association for kidney cancer, and for endometrial and ovarian cancers in never smokers only, cannot be excluded.

Previous studies have shown that various dietary components may be implicated in the aetiology of pancreatic cancer. However, the possible relationship between diet-related inflammation and the risk of pancreatic cancer has not yet been investigated. We examined the ability of a newly developed literature-derived dietary inflammatory index (DII) to predict the risk of pancreatic cancer in a case-control study conducted in Italy between 1991 and 2008. This included 326 incident cases and 652 controls admitted to the major teaching and general hospitals for non-neoplastic diseases, frequency-matched to cases by study centre, sex and age. The DII was computed based on dietary intake assessed using a validated and reproducible seventy-eight-item FFQ. Logistic regression models were used to estimate multivariable OR adjusted for age, sex, study centre, education, BMI, smoking status, alcohol drinking and history of diabetes. Energy adjustment was performed using the residual method. Subjects with higher DII scores (i.e., representing a more pro-inflammatory diet) had a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, with the DII being used as both a continuous variable (ORcontinuous 1.24, 95% CI 1.11, 1.38) and a categorical variable (i.e., compared with the subjects in the lowest quintile of the DII, those in the second, third, fourth and fifth quintiles had, respectively, OR(quintile2 v. 1) 1.70, 95% CI 1.02, 2.80; OR(quintile3 v. 1) 1.91, 95% CI 1.16, 3.16; OR(quintile4 v. 1) 1.98, 95% CI 1.20, 3.27; OR(quintile5 v. 1) 2.48, 95% CI 1.50, 4.10; P trend= 0.0015). These data suggest that a pro-inflammatory diet increases the risk of pancreatic cancer.

We performed a descriptive survey on the use of dietary supplements among Italian sporting club amateur athletes to obtain information on the prevalence of use and beliefs of athletes on their usefulness and danger to plan information strategies. The DOXA Institute selected and interviewed 289 amateur athletes (median age 35 years, range 18–57) in sport facilities practising various sports. Subjects were asked about their beliefs on the use of supplements for athletic performance, and the related benefits and side effects. Sixty-seven percent of athletes reported that physical performance is increased with a balanced diet, 89.6% that supplements can further increase it and 69.9% that supplements are widespread and not difficult to buy. Amateur athletes believed that about 50% of athletes of both sexes use supplements at least occasionally, that the highest prevalence of use is among those aged 30–44 years and the lowest is among teenagers. Sixty-two percent of athletes reported an increase of use over the last few years, 40.5% that supplements had no adverse effects, 55.7% that some athletes abuse supplements at least occasionally and 61.3% that medical advice is not obtained before use. Supplements containing minerals are reported as most useful followed by those with vitamins and amino acids/proteins. Probiotics/phytotherapics and meal replacements were less frequently used. Thus, in the opinion of amateur athletes attending sporting clubs, supplement use is widespread and non-professional athletes are poorly informed of the potential adverse effects of supplementation, supporting the need for correct scientific information that can balance the marketing that encourages its use.

In most areas of the world, thyroid cancer incidence has been appreciably increasing over the last few decades, whereas mortality has steadily declined. We updated global trends in thyroid cancer mortality and incidence using official mortality data from the World Health Organization (1970-2012) and incidence data from the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (1960-2007). Male mortality declined in all the major countries considered, with annual percent changes around -2/-3% over the last decades. Only in the United States mortality declined up to the mid 1980s and increased thereafter. Similarly, in women mortality declined in most countries considered, with APCs around -2/-5% over the last decades, with the exception of the UK, the United States and Australia, where mortality has been declining up to the late 1980s/late 1990s to level off (or increase) thereafter. In 2008-2012, most countries had mortality rates (age-standardized, world population) between 0.20 and 0.40/100,000 men and 0.20 and 0.60/100,000 women, the highest rates being in Latvia, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova and Israel (over 0.40/100,000) for men and in Ecuador, Colombia and Israel (over 0.60/100,000) for women. In most countries, a steady increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer (mainly papillary carcinomas) was observed in both sexes. The declines in thyroid cancer mortality reflect both variations in risk factor exposure and changes in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, while the increases in the incidence are likely due to the increase in the detection of this neoplasm over the last few decades.

Previous studies have shown that various dietary components may be implicated in the aetiology of prostate cancer, although the results remain equivocal. The possible relationship of inflammation derived from dietary exposures with prostate cancer risk has not been investigated. We examined the ability of a newly developed dietary inflammatory index (DII) to predict prostate cancer risk in a case-control study conducted in Italy between 1991 and 2002. A total of 1294 patients aged < 75 years with incident, histologically confirmed carcinoma of the prostate served as cases. A total of 1451 subjects aged < 75 years who were admitted to the same hospitals as cases for a wide spectrum of acute, non-neoplastic conditions served as controls. The DII was computed based on dietary intake assessed using a previously validated seventy-eight-item FFQ. Logistic regression models were used to estimate multivariable OR adjusted for age, study centre, years of education, social class, BMI, smoking status, family history of prostate cancer and total energy intake. Men with higher DII scores had a higher risk of prostate cancer when analysed using the DII as both continuous (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00, 1.13) and categorical, i.e., compared with men in the lowest quartile of the DII, men in the third and fourth quartiles were at elevated risk (OR(Quartile 3 v. 1) 1.32, 95% CI 1.03, 1.69 and OR(Quartile 4 v. 1) 1.33, 95% CI 1.01, 1.76; P trend= 0.04). These data suggest that a pro-inflammatory diet, as indicated by the increasing DII score, is a risk factor of prostate cancer in Italian men.

The Mediterranean diet is inversely associated with the risk of non-fatal AMI in this Southern European population.

The consequences of unsafe sex-unintended pregnancy and STI-continue to present major public health problems worldwide even in countries where the prevalence of use of modern contraception is high. Robust systems for routine data collection are sorely needed in most countries and systematic attempts to compare patterns of sexual behaviour across men and women of all ages would be welcome.

Abstract Recent screening trials indicate that low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reduces lung-cancer mortality in high risk subjects. However, high false positive rates, costs and potential harms highlight the need for complementary biomarkers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are tissue and disease specific molecules, actively released by cells in the circulatory system, which are associated with protein complexes and/or packaged in exosomes and microvesicles. Circulating miRNAs are rather stable and easily detectable in body fluids suggesting the possibility of using miRNAs as a new promising class of biomarkers. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV, respectively) of a non-invasive plasma miRNA signature classifier (MSC) to identify lung cancer occurrence and mortality was retrospectively evaluated in samples prospectively collected from smokers within the randomized Multicentre Italian Lung Detection (MILD) trial. Plasma samples from 939 subjects including 69 lung cancer patients and 870 disease-free individuals were analyzed using a Real-Time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) based assay for MSC. Combined sensitivity and specificity of plasma MSC and LDCT were assessed in a blinded validation study. MSC correctly identified patients with lung cancer at 87% sensitivity, 81% specificity, and 99% NPV, and 18 of 19 lung cancer deaths at 95% sensitivity 81% specificity, and 99.86% NPV. MSC identified 43 of 49 (88%) LDCT-detected cancers, 8 of 9 (89%) interval cancers in the LDCT arm, and 9 of 11 (82%) cancers in the observational arm. Diagnostic performance of MSC was confirmed by time dependency analysis. MSC fell to negative after lung cancer resection in 16 of 22 evaluable subjects. In lung cancer patients, there was a trend in mortality across levels of MSC (p=0.0336) and survival rate significantly differed according to MSC in all subjects (X21=49.53, p&amp;lt;0.0001). Combination of MSC and LDCT resulted in a 5-fold reduction of LDCT false positive rate. This large validation study highlights the clinical diagnostic and prognostic value of plasma MSC for lung cancer screening in high-risk populations. The combined use of LDCT and MSC could reduce the false positive rate of LDCT improving the efficacy of lung cancer screening. Citation Format: Mattia Boeri, Carla Verri, Gabriella Sozzi, Luca Roz, Davide Conte, Paola Suatoni, Alfonso Marchiano, Carlo La Vecchia, Marta Rossi, Francesca Bravi, Eva Negri, Nicola Sverzellati, Ugo Pastorino. Clinical utility of a plasma microRNA biomarker within lung cancer screening. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 871. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-871

The difference in data on the number of cigarettes smoked between national health surveys and legal sales has increased in the last few years in Spain.