Biomedical subjects

M Feuerman

Publications and source records attributed to M Feuerman.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1985

Clusters of cancer mortality in New Jersey municipalities; with special reference to chemical toxic waste disposal sites and per capita income.

The state of New Jersey (NJ), USA, has been thought to have an unusually high cancer mortality rate; this assumption has been based on 1950-1969 mortality data for NJ counties. This study presents an analysis of mortality from major cancers for NJ municipalities during 1968-1977, and correlates cancer mortality rates with several potentially relevant variables. Age-adjusted mortality rates for 13 major cancer sites for 194 municipalities of 10 000 or more people in 21 NJ counties were compared with cancer mortality in the US. Municipality rates were correlated with: distribution of chemical toxic waste disposal sites (CTWDS); annual per capita income; the rates of low birth weight, birth defects and infant mortality of NJ municipalities. Clusters of cancer mortality were observed in 23 municipalities in 10 counties in which a total of 98 age-adjusted cancer death rates were at least 50% above the national rate, and each of these municipalities had at least two race-sex-specific cancers in which the observed number of cancer deaths was greater than the expected number of deaths at the p less than 0.0005 level. Of these 98 excessive cancer death rates, 72% involved the gastrointestinal tract. Most of the municipalities are located in the highly industrialized densely populated northeastern part of the State. Correlation analyses showed a consistent and significant (p less than 0.05) negative correlation between income and cancer mortality in 11 of 12 cancers studied. These analyses also showed a significant positive association between 8 of 12 cancers studied and CTWDS in one or more subgroup populations and lesser associations with birth defects, low birth weight and infant mortality.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed1983

Construction and characterization of Moloney murine leukemia virus mutants unable to synthesize glycosylated gag polyprotein.

Murine leukemia virus (MuLV) encodes two independent pathways for expression of the gag gene. One pathway results in processing and cleavage of the precursor Pr65gag to yield the internal capsid proteins of the virion and is analogous to gag polyprotein precursors for all classes of retroviruses. The other pathway, which is not encoded by several other classes of retroviruses, begins with a glycosylated polyprotein gPr80gag . gPr80gag is synthesized independently of Pr65gag; it contains Pr65gag peptides and additional amino-terminal protein. It is modified by further addition of carbohydrate, exported to the cell surface, and released from the cell but does not appear in virus particles. To investigate the role of glycosylated gag in MuLV infection, two mutants of Moloney MuLV (M-MuLV) deficient for synthesis of gPr80gag but able to synthesize Pr65gag were constructed. The mutants were obtained by substitution into a molecular clone of M-MuLV DNA by DNA from two acutely transforming viruses, Ableson MuLV (Ab-MuLV) and Moloney murine sarcoma virus (M-MSV). Both Ab-MuLV and M-MSV are derived from M-MuLV and they express M-MuLV gag sequences, but some strains do not synthesize glycosylated gag protein. For Ab-MuLV, a 177-base-pair Pst I fragment from the P90 strain containing the initiation codon for Pr65gag was substituted for the equivalent fragment in M-MuLV DNA. For M-MSV, 1.5 kilobases at the 5' end of the genome was substituted. Transfection of the recombined DNAs onto NIH-3T3 cells produced infectious M-MuLV, although the infected cells did not produce gPr80gag. Therefore glycosylated gag is not absolutely required for MuLV replication. Deletion of the glycosylated gag pathway did not significantly reduce the level of virus production, although a minor difference in XC plaque morphology was observed.

Animals↗

PubMed1982

Treatment benefit functions for a drug abuse rehabilitation treatment system.

While generally justifying the large amount of money invested in the treatment effort, evaluation studies of treatment centers for drug addiction do not offer a rational method of allocating scarce resources among the various available treatment programs. The problem is further confounded by different costs associated with the different programs and also because clients rarely complete the prescribed treatment. We developed functional relationships between treatment outcomes and time in treatment that allow the inclusion of probable length of stay of patients and cost per week for a particular treatment program in the evaluation considerations. The model evolved from a drug addiction treatment system operating in Newark, New Jersey consisting of six different treatment centres. Treatment outcome measures are derived from a psychosocial questionnaire which was administered to patients at appropriate time intervals. The questionnaire probed into the important facets of human behavior as related to the use or non-use of drugs for non-medical reasons. Gompertz curves reflecting treatment benefit are computed for each treatment center by least square fit of the collected data to appropriate differential equations and used together with cost of treatment and treatment retention rates to compute expected net benefit for each treatment center. These enable the researcher to find the treatment centers with the best treatment outcome or alternately with the best expected cost benefit ratio for any patient type.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed1981

Cancer incidence and mortality in Newark, N. J. 1970-1974: a national comparison.

New Jersey has acquired the invidious label "Cancer Alley U. S. A." based upon a national cancer mortality analysis. However, a cancer incidence survey conducted in Newark, the largest metropolitan industrial city in New Jersey, showed that age-adjusted Newark rates for all sites were comparable to the Third National Cancer Survey (TNCS) and Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) populations, except for black males who had statistically lower rates compared with the SEER population only. However, Newark did have statistically higher incidence of the following: (a) esophagus cancer among white men, black men, and black women; and (b) cervix, uterus, ovary, and bladder cancers among black women. Age-adjusted Newark cancer mortality for all sites was not statistically different from the SEER experience, except for an excessive cancer mortality among white men for stomach and esophagus; white women for stomach, colon-rectum, and uterus; black men for esophagus and colon-rectum; black women for colon-rectum, cervix, uterus, and ovary. An analysis of Newark mortality/incidence ratios suggests that the excessive cancer burden for the majority of sites studied resulted from poor end results of therapy, probably due to either late diagnosis, poor compliance, and/or suboptimal therapy. The Newark data cast doubt on the validity of the use of mortality data only in referring pejoratively to New Jersey as "Cancer Alley U. S. A."

Adolescent↗

PubMed1981

Carcinoma of the cervix in Newark, New Jersey, 1970-76. A very low in situ: invasive ratio.

Both blacks and whites in Newark had significantly lowered incidences of in situ cervical cancer as compared to the Third National Cancer Survey (TNCS) population. In contrast, Newark blacks' invasive cancer rates were higher than those found in any individual geographic area surveyed in TNCS except for Minneapolis as compared to Newark whites, who had lower rates than all individual TNCS areas except Colorado and San Francisco. Newark blacks had a relative risk of 4.0 for invasive cancer as compared to Newark whites, whereas the corresponding relative risk for blacks versus whites in the TNCS population was 2.0. Newark blacks and whites together had the lowest in situ invasive ratio as compared to women in other parts of the United States. The invasive cancer incidence and mortality rates for both Newark blacks and whites were significantly higher than in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) population, but incidence:mortality ratios for Newark and SEER were not different. The most likely explanation for the low in situ rates and high invasive rates among Newark blacks is their failure to obtain Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. The low in situ rate among Newark whites in the absence of a high invasive rate is difficult to explain. It seems that the problem among blacks can be alleviated by the widespread use of Pap smears, which reduce the frequency of invasive cancer and the associated mortality.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Health effects of a Superfund hazardous chemical waste disposal site.

A cross-sectional study of 358 households consisting of 1,454 persons was carried out to test the hypothesis that people who have resided in the vicinity of a Superfund hazardous chemical waste disposal site (SHCWDS) would have more health problems than those who lived at a greater distance from the SHCWDS. The SHCWDS is located in a rural community in southern New Jersey. Geohydrological surveys of the SHCWDS premise have found groundwater and soil contaminated with chemical substances. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of cancer, liver illnesses, and skin diseases between the exposed and comparison groups. However, a significantly higher prevalence of respiratory diseases (relative risk [RR] = 1.9, confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 3.3) and seizures (RR = 4.3, CI 1.1, 13.9) occurred among the exposed group. The differences between the exposed and unexposed groups disappeared when cigarette smoking, the consumption of homegrown vegetables, or source of water supply were considered.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Caries experience and cariogenic markers in HIV-positive children and their siblings.

The purpose of this cross-sectional, masked study was to compare the oral status of perinatally HIV-infected children with their uninfected siblings living in the same environment. A secondary purpose was to compare HIV-positive children for differences in oral health with respect to disease advancement. One hundred forty-seven children were examined in their homes and meeting places, using NIH criteria for caries diagnosis. Significant differences were found in the number of caries-free children (P < 0.05), past caries experience (P < 0.003), subsurface demineralizations (P < 0.0001), and caries-related bacteria (P < 0.05). However, differences in caries prevalence were not found in the 3- to 6-year-old subgroup. Caries prevalence (P < 0.001) and levels of caries-related flora in saliva were correlated to years since diagnosis (mutans streptococci P < 0.008, lactobacilli P < 0.02). Children with a more advanced disease stage had significantly more caries (P < 0.02). Among the HIV-infected children, the frequency of carbohydrate intake was clearly correlated to caries (P < 0.003) and to lactobacilli levels (P < 0.0001). It is concluded that children with perinatally acquired HIV are at greater risk for caries than their siblings, more so with advancing disease.

Adolescent↗