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Biomedical subjects

M Ewertz

Publications and source records attributed to M Ewertz.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Survival of breast cancer patients in relation to factors which affect the risk of developing breast cancer.

In order to evaluate the prognostic significance of risk factors for developing breast cancer, a population-based study was conducted of 2,445 breast cancer patients diagnosed in Denmark, 1983-1984. Data on clinical and pathological characteristics of breast cancer were derived from the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group and data on risk factors from a self-administered questionnaire. Among 1,744 patients (71%) with complete information, survival was determined primarily by size of the tumour, skin invasion, number of positive lymph nodes and grade. No significant association was found between survival and reproductive or hormonal risk factors, dietary variables, alcohol consumption and smoking. Low current body weight and weight loss indicated a poor prognosis, independent of the clinical characteristics of the tumour.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1991

[Breast cancer in the Faeroe Islands during 1958-1987].

From 1958 to 1987, a total of 269 primary breast cancers were diagnosed in 261 women living in the Faroe Islands. The five-year survival was 46.7% (95% confidence interval 40.3-53.0%) and the median survival four years and three months. The incidence of breast cancer in the Faroe Islands remained constant from 1958 to 1972 after which an increase occurred. At present, one in 20 Faroe women will develop breast cancer before the age of 75 years. The time trend in breast cancer incidence is similar in the Faroe Islands and in Denmark, but the incidence is significantly lower in the Faroe Islands at a level corresponding to 2/3 of the Danish. This difference is presumed to be due to a different prevalence of risk factors for development breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk in Denmark.

The influence of alcohol consumption on breast cancer risk was evaluated in a population-based case-control study, including 1,486 cases diagnosed over a one-year (1983-84) period in Denmark. Cases were identified from the files of the nationwide clinical trial of the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group and the Danish Cancer Registry. The control group was an age-stratified random sample of 1,336 women from the general population. Data on risk factors were collected by self-administered questionnaires. The association of alcohol consumption with breast cancer risk varied with age and dietary fat intake. Among women aged 50-59 years, with a fat intake in the lowest quartile, the risk of breast cancer increased with increasing consumption of alcohol. A consumption of 24 g or more per day was associated with an 18-fold increased risk compared with abstainers. For women in other age groups, alcohol consumption had no significant association with breast cancer risk.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Development of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess food, energy and nutrient intake in Denmark.

Foods to be included in a Danish self-administered semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire were identified from food tables developed, together with data collected, for the survey 'Dietary habits in Denmark, 1985'. The questionnaire was to be used in a prospective study on diet, cancer and health, and the aim was to rank individuals with regard to intake of 19 different nutrients considered of prime importance in human carcinogenesis. The questionnaire for the dietary survey included 247 foods and recipes. From stepwise multiple regression analyses with the intake of each of the 19 nutrients as the dependent variable and the intake of the 247 foods and recipes as independent variables, the foods in the models explaining 90% of the between-person variability were considered for the final questionnaire. All relevant analyses were performed for the study group as a whole, for men and women separately, and in each gender for subgroups of energy intake. Taken together, the models explaining 90% of the between-person variability identified a total of 74 foods or recipes, which were important predictors of the intake of one or more of the nutrients considered. A few foods were excluded and a few foods were added to the final questionnaire based on common biological background information, and on information on foods providing important amounts of given nutrients, but which failed to contribute to regression analyses. The 92 foods and recipes, which were included in the final questionnaire provided altogether 81% of the average total supply of the nutrients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Validation of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire developed in Denmark.

In 1989, a self-administered food frequency questionnaire, including 92 food items and 40 portion-size photographs, was validated against two times seven days of weighed diet records. A total of 144 subjects, aged 40-64 years, from the general population in Copenhagen were included. Correlations between mean calorie-adjusted intakes from the two-week diet records and the food-frequency questionnaire ranged from 0.27 for vitamin A to 0.71 for calcium. In general, higher correlation coefficients were observed for men than for women. On average, about 70% of subjects were classified in the same (+/- 1) quintile in the food frequency questionnaire and the diet records. Of those subjects belonging to the lowest quintile, estimated from the diet records, 42% fell in the same quintile and 68% into the lowest two quintiles in the food frequency questionnaire. Findings were similar for the upper tail of the distribution. Gross misclassification, observed in the highest and lowest quintile, was found for 4% and 7% of the subjects, respectively. It is concluded that this food frequency questionnaire is a useful instrument for categorizing individuals according to their intake of nutrients and energy.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Dietary factors and breast-cancer risk in Denmark.

The influence of dietary factors, in particular the intake of fat and beta-carotene, on breast-cancer risk was evaluated in a case-control study including 1,486 breast cancer cases diagnosed over a 1 year period in Denmark. The control group was an age-stratified random sample of 1,336 women from the general population. Data on usual diet prior to the breast cancer diagnosis were collected by self-administered questionnaires of the semi-quantitative food frequency type. A highly significant trend (p less than 0.001) of increasing risk was observed with increasing fat intake, the RR for the highest quartile being 1.45 (95% Cl 1.17-1.80) compared with the lowest. However, information was not available to allow adjustment for the possible confounding effect of energy intake. The risk of breast cancer was not associated with consumption of vegetables rich in beta-carotene, multi-vitamin tablets or other dietary supplements, coffee, tea, sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Age at first birth, parity and risk of breast cancer: a meta-analysis of 8 studies from the Nordic countries.

Several large epidemiological studies in the Nordic countries have failed to confirm an association between age at first birth and breast cancer independent of parity. To assess whether lack of power or heterogeneity between the countries could explain this, a meta-analysis was performed of 8 population-based studies (3 cohort and 5 case-control) of breast cancer and reproductive variables in the Nordic countries, including a total of 5,568 cases. It confirmed that low parity and late age at first birth are significant and independent determinants of breast-cancer risk. Nulliparity was associated with a 30% increase in risk compared with parous women, and for every 2 births, the risk was reduced by about 16%. There was a significant trend of increasing risk with increasing age at first birth, women giving first birth after the age of 35 years having a 40% increased risk compared to those with a first birth before the age of 20 years. Tests for heterogeneity between studies were not significant for any of the examined variables. In the absence of bias, this suggests that several individual Nordic studies may have had too little power to detect the weak effect of age at first birth observed in the meta-analysis.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1990

Smoking and breast cancer risk in Denmark.

The effect of smoking on breast cancer risk was evaluated in a population-based case-control study, including 1,480 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Denmark between 1983-84. They were identified from the files of the nationwide clinical trial of the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group and the Danish Cancer Registry. The control group was an age-stratified sample of 1,332 women from the general population. Data on risk factors were collected by self-administered questionnaires. The risk of breast cancer among current smokers and ex-smokers was similar to that in non-smokers, both risk estimates being close to unity. No dose-response relation was observed for any measure of smoking (age at start, duration, number of cigarettes per day, or cigarette-years of exposure) in all subjects, and when pre- and post-menopausal women were examined separately. These findings suggest that smoking is not associated with the risk of breast cancer.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

The association between risk of breast cancer and age at first pregnancy and parity in Maribo County, Denmark.

The effect of age at first pregnancy and number of pregnancies was examined in a cohort of 14,421 women where reproductive informations were collected as part of a cervical cancer screening program. A total of 352 cases occurred in the cohort. In subgroups of women defined by age at first pregnancy the relative risk of breast cancer was lower among women who were first pregnant before 25 years of age (RR = 0.85 vs 1.20). In subgroups of women defined by parity the relative risk decreased with increasing number of pregnancies from about unity among women with 0-3 pregnancies to 0.7 among women with 6 or more pregnancies.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The survival pattern in male breast cancer. An analysis of 1429 patients from the Nordic countries.

A joint Nordic study was conducted to elucidate the survival pattern in male breast cancer by means of regression analysis of annual relative survival rates. A total of 1429 (98.4%) of all patients diagnosed during a 25-year to 30-year period and reported to the Nordic cancer registries were available for follow-up through 1982. The relative survival rate was lower in older patients; the relative excess risk of dying (from breast cancer) during the first 5 years of observation, calculated by multiple regression modelling, increased in a regular fashion more than three-fold from patients younger than 40 years at diagnosis to those aged 80 years or older. Significantly lower rates were found among males in Denmark and Finland, the relative excess risks of dying (compared with Sweden) being 1.39 (1.06-1.80) and 1.73 (1.22-2.45), respectively, during the first 5 years. The authors concluded first that important differences exist between male and female patients with breast cancer in the relation between survival and age at diagnosis, and secondly that a later stage at presentation or national differences in the natural history are the most likely explanations for the worse prognosis in Denmark and Finland.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Incidence of male breast cancer in Scandinavia, 1943-1982.

Male breast cancer incidence was examined in a collaborative study of data from the cancer registries in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, comprising a total of 1,529 cases diagnosed from 1943 to 1982. Effects of age, time of diagnosis, birth cohort and country of residence were evaluated by using statistical models of the multiplicative Poisson type. The logarithm of incidence increased linearly with the logarithm of age and had a slope of about 5. In Denmark, male breast cancer incidence increased significantly with time, about 1% per year. No significant time effects were observed in the other countries. A significant effect of birth cohort appeared in Sweden only, but there was no particular trend in incidence by year of birth. In relation to Denmark, the risk of male breast cancer was lower in Sweden, Norway and Finland, the relative risk estimates with 95% confidence intervals being 0.82(0.72-0.94), 0.72(0.61-0.84) and 0.53(0.43-0.64) respectively. The variation within Scandinavia is similar for female breast cancer, pointing to common factors being involved in the etiology of breast cancer in both sexes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Multiple primary cancers of the breast, endometrium and ovary.

The association between cancers of the breast, endometrium and ovary is reviewed, using mainly population-based data from the cancer registries in Denmark and Connecticut, U.S.A. Breast cancer patients had an approximately three-fold increased risk of developing a cancer in the contralateral breast. The risk of breast cancer was also elevated following cancers of the corpus uteri and ovary, with relative risk (RR) estimates of about 1.5 from 1 to 4 years after the diagnosis of the first primary cancer. An increased risk of cancer of the corpus uteri subsequent to breast cancer was found in Connecticut, but not in Denmark. After an ovarian cancer, the risk of cancer of the corpus uteri was also elevated (RR = 1.6-2.3). An increased risk of ovarian cancer was observed subsequent to breast cancer (RR = 1.3-1.7), whereas the ovarian cancer risk decreased with time since the diagnosis of a cancer of the corpus uteri, probably reflecting treatment involving oophorectomy.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1988

Influence of non-contraceptive exogenous and endogenous sex hormones on breast cancer risk in Denmark.

In order to evaluate the influence of sex hormones on breast cancer risk, a population-based case-control study was conducted in Denmark, including 1,486 cases diagnosed over a one-year period. These were identified from the files of the nation-wide clinical trial of the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group and the Danish Cancer Registry. The control group was an age-stratified random sample of 1,336 women from the general population. Data on risk factors were collected by self-administered (mailed) questionnaires. The major findings included a trend (p = 0.001) toward decreasing risk with increasing age at menarche in pre-menopausal women, trends toward increasing risk with continued menstrual cycles after the age of 50 in pre- and post-menopausal women (p-values of 0.01 and 0.002 respectively), and a trend (p = 0.002) toward increasing risk with increasing duration of non-contraceptive sex hormone usage in post-menopausal women. Information on brand names made it possible to examine types of hormones used, which showed an RR of 1.36 (95% CI 0.98-1.87) for sequential therapy with oestrogen and progestagen and RR = 2.31 (95% CI 1.37-3.88) for combined oestrogen-androgen treatment. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, needing verification from other studies. No significant association was observed between breast cancer and self-reported height and weight.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1988

Ovarian cancer incidence and mortality in Denmark, 1943-1982.

Trends in ovarian cancer incidence and mortality were examined using data from the Danish Cancer Registry and national mortality statistics respectively. The study population comprised 17,956 incident cases diagnosed between 1943 and 1982 and 11,904 deaths between 1953 and 1982 due to cancer in the ovaries, Fallopian tube, and broad ligament. A significant 50% increase in incidence occurred from 1943 to 1972, whereafter a slight decrease was observed. This rise could be ascribed entirely to an increasing incidence among women born between 1863 and 1898. No change was seen in women born after 1900. Analysis of mortality confirmed the increasing ovarian cancer risk among women born during the last century, but indicated that the risk of dying from ovarian cancer decreased with time among women born after 1900. The observed trends were compatible with cohort-specific changes in fertility in Danish women born between 1890 and 1934. The effect of age on ovarian cancer incidence, overall and by histologic type, agreed well with previous findings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Trends in breast cancer incidence and mortality in Denmark, 1943-1982.

The trend in breast cancer incidence and mortality was examined using data from the Danish Cancer Registry and the national mortality statistics respectively. The study population comprised 65,870 incident cases and 33,817 deaths from breast cancer in Denmark between 1943 and 1982. The incidence rate remained almost constant up to around 1960, whereafter it rose steadily. Comparatively little change was observed in mortality. Possible explanations for the differing trends in incidence and mortality include under-reporting of breast cancer from death certificates and improvement in survival. A multivariate statistical analysis showed that the increase in incidence was due mostly to a cohort effect, though calendar time may have had a slight effect as well.

Adult↗