Publications

Overall self-reported smoking prevalence had not appreciably changed over the last few years. However, prevalence of smoking appears to have declined in the young. Compared to legal sale data, tobacco consumption is substantially under reported.

<p>DLBCL cases included in the study.</p>

The relation between hypertension and the risk of selected hormone-related neoplasms in women was investigated in a network of case-control studies conducted in Italy during 1983-1996. Cases were women younger than 75 years with histologically confirmed cancer of the breast (n=3406), endometrium (n=745), ovary (n=970), and thyroid (n=145). Controls were 3054 women admitted in the same geographic area for acute, nonneoplastic, non-hormone-related diseases. Odds ratios (ORs) of treated hypertension were computed after allowance for sociodemographic factors, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, parity, menopausal status, and body mass index (BMI) by means of unconditional logistic regression. The ORs were 1.2 (95% CI, 1.1 to 1.4) for breast cancer and 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3 to 1.9) for endometrial cancer, and the elevated ORs persisted after >/=5 years since diagnosis of hypertension. No significant association was observed for ovarian and thyroid cancer. For breast cancer, the association was apparently stronger at age 55 years or over and consequently after menopause. No appreciable effect modification was evident for endometrial cancer. Allowance for BMI did not explain the association of postmenopausal breast cancer and endometrial cancer with hypertension. The OR of postmenopausal breast cancer was 1.5 (95% CI, 1.1 to 2.0) in hypertensive women with BMI >/=30 kg/m(2) compared with normotensive women with BMI <25 kg/m(2). The corresponding figure for all endometrial cancers was 4.9 (95% CI, 3. 4 to 6.9). Even in the absence of a clear understanding of biological mechanisms, the definition of a role of hypertension on female hormone-related cancers can have relevant implications on individual risk assessment.

Besides presenting the benefits of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy, the model helps identify information gaps in surveillance and evaluation schemes that will promote the effectiveness of future tobacco control policy in Italy.

We conducted a multicenter prospective study to assess the effects of occupational exposure to ethylenebisdithiocarbamate fungicides and/or other pesticides on self-reported asthma and asthmatic symptoms. This multicenter study was conducted among 248 workers exposed to pesticides and 231 non-exposed workers from five field studies. The five field studies were carried out in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland, and two studies in Bulgaria. Subjects constituting this cohort completed a self-administered questionnaire at baseline (before the start of exposure). Ethylenethiourea in urine was determined to assess exposure to ethylenebisdithiocarbamates. In multivariate analyses adjusted for all potential confounders (age, education, residence, smoking, gender, and field study), we found inverse associations, all not statistically significant, between occupational exposure to pesticides and asthma diagnosis (OR 0.41; 95% CI 0.15-1.11), complains of chest tightness (OR 0.60; 95% CI 0.36-1.02), wheeze (OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.32-0.98), asthma attack (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.12-2.25), and asthma medication (OR 0.79; 95% CI 0.25-2.53). Furthermore, we reported null associations for multivariate analysis using ethylenethiourea as determinant for exposure. Although exposure to pesticides remains a potential health risk, our results do not suggest an association between exposure to ethylenebisdithiocarbamates and/or other pesticides used in our study on asthma and asthmatic symptoms.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Alcohol consumption is a major cause of disease and death. In a previous study, we reported that in 2002, 3.6% of all cases of cancer and a similar proportion of cancer deaths were attributable to the consumption of alcohol. We aimed to update these figures to 2012 using global estimates of cancer cases and cancer deaths, data on the prevalence of drinkers from the World Health Organization (WHO) global survey on alcohol and health, and relative risks for alcohol-related neoplasms from a recent meta-analysis. Over the 10-year period considered, the total number of alcohol-attributable cancer cases increased to approximately 770,000 worldwide (5.5% of the total number of cancer cases)-540,000 men (7.2%) and 230,000 women (3.5%). Corresponding figures for cancer deaths attributable to alcohol consumption increased to approximately 480,000 (5.8% of the total number of cancer deaths) in both sexes combined-360,000 (7.8%) men and 120,000 (3.3%) women. These proportions were particularly high in the WHO Western Pacific region, the WHO European region and the WHO South-East Asia region. A high burden of cancer mortality and morbidity is attributable to alcohol, and public health measures should be adopted in order to limit excessive alcohol consumption.

Our findings link TRPML-1 dysfunction to the development of kidney disease in MLIV, providing new insights into its pathogenesis and potential therapeutic targets.