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Biomedical subjects

P Maisonneuve

Publications and source records attributed to P Maisonneuve.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Decrease in mortality from benign prostatic hyperplasia: a major unheralded health triumph.

PURPOSE: A systematic examination of all available mortality data from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) between 1950 and 1990 was done to estimate the changing international mortality pattern of this condition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mortality data in which BPH was the underlying cause of death were abstracted from the World Health Organization mortality data base. These data were available from a variety of international countries (in many since 1950). RESULTS: Mortality rates have decreased with considerable magnitude in developed western countries between the early 1950s and late 1980s. This fact could reasonably be attributed to the improved management of the most severe complications of BPH and to improvements in surgery and anesthesia, which have made surgical interventions of the prostate possible in a greater proportion of men, and safer in the immediate and subsequent postoperative period. CONCLUSIONS: The decreases noted in western countries, such as the United Kingdom (where 8,700 fewer men die each year presently than would be expected if the BPH mortality rates from the early 1950s still applied), United States (13,681 fewer deaths) and France (2,884 fewer deaths), indicate a considerable but unheralded achievement for modern medicine. Unfortunately, these decreases have not been observed to the same extent in central and eastern Europe and South America, where the residual high mortality rates could be lowered by education, and the widespread availability of modern surgical and anesthetic equipment.

Cause of Death

The risk of cancer among patients with cystic fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis and Cancer Study Group.

BACKGROUND: Anecdotal reports suggest an increased frequency of certain cancers in patients with cystic fibrosis, the commonest genetic disorder of whites. One third of patients with cystic fibrosis now reach adulthood, when cancer is more frequent, implying that cancer rates in these patients will increase over time. We investigated the relation between cystic fibrosis and cancer in North American and European patients with cystic fibrosis. Methods. We performed a retrospective cohort study of the occurrence of cancer in 28,511 patients with cystic fibrosis from 1985 through 1992 in the United States and Canada. The number of cases observed was compared with the number expected, calculated from population-based data on the incidence of cancer. We also analyzed proportional incidence ratios to assess the association between specific cancers and cystic fibrosis in Europe. RESULTS: Thirty-seven cancers were observed in the North American cohort during 164,764 person-years of follow-up, as compared with an expected number of 45.6, yielding a ratio of observed to expected cancers of 0.8 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.6 to 1.1). Thirteen digestive tract tumors were observed, as compared with an expected number of two, for a ratio of observed to expected cancers of 6.5 (95 percent confidence interval, 3.5 to 11.1). In Europe, 11 of 39 cancers originated in the digestive tract, yielding a positive association between digestive tract tumors and cystic fibrosis (odds ratio, 6.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.9 to 14.0). CONCLUSIONS: Although the overall risk of cancer in patients with cystic fibrosis is similar to that of the general population, there is an increased risk of digestive tract cancers. Persistent or unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms in these patients should be carefully investigated.

Adolescent

Lung cancer and tobacco smoking.

The dominant role of tobacco smoking in the causation of lung cancer has been repeatedly demonstrated over the past 50 years. Current lung cancer rates reflect cigarette smoking habits of men and women in the past decades, but not necessarily current smoking patterns, since there is an interval of several decades between the change in smoking habits in a population and its consequences on lung cancer rates. Over 90% of lung cancer may be avoidable simply through avoidance of cigarette smoking. There is at present a huge premature loss of life world-wide caused by smoking. Rates of lung cancer present in central and eastern Europe at the present time are higher than those ever before recorded elsewhere; lung cancer has increased 10-fold in men and eightfold in women in Japan since 1950. There is a world-wide epidemic of smoking among young women which will be translated into increasing rates of tobacco-related disease, including cancer, in the coming decades. There is another epidemic of lung cancer and tobacco-related deaths building up in China as the cohorts of men in whom tobacco smoking became popular reach ages where cancer is an important hazard. Many solutions have been attempted to reduce cigarette smoking and increasingly many countries are enacting legislation to curb this habit. Cigarette smoking remains the number one target for Public Health action aimed at reducing cancer risk in the general population. General practitioners, hospital physicians and everyone working in oncology have a particularly important exemplary role to play in this process.

Female

Worldwide patterns of prevalence and mortality from benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) can be found in 88% of autopsies in men > or = 80 years, with compatible symptomatology reported in nearly 50% of men aged > or = 50 years in the general population. Despite such a common occurrence, little is known with any certainty about the epidemiology of BPH (for which "prostatism" is a commonly, and wrongly, used synonym). Knowledge of risk factors is sparse: analytic epidemiologic studies of BPH are difficult to conduct. It is essential to establish an epidemiologic definition of BPH for these reasons. Both BPH and prostatism are the problems that seem set to increase in absolute terms. They are clearly identified as priority areas for research into their causes and treatment. However, it is clear that there is a great need for more epidemiologic information, particularly regarding prostatism, whose occurrence is unknown in many parts of the world.

Global Health

Geographical and temporal patterns of incidence and mortality from prostate cancer.

In many countries of the world, prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in men, and in the United States it is now in first rank. It is an important public health problem, with > 0.25 million new cases diagnosed worldwide in the year 1985. Whereas earlier large increases in the incidence of prostate cancer were apparent throughout the world, the mortality rate has remained constant in generations of men born since the early years of this century. Most importantly, given that in several countries the increased number of children born after World War II will be in their mid-50s in the early part of the 21st century (at an age when cancer risk is becoming an important consideration), and coupled with the trends in increasing life expectancy, the consequence will be an increase in absolute terms in the number of cases of prostate cancer diagnosed. In the absence of treatment improvements and with prospects for prevention by modification of lifestyle remote within current knowledge, there will also be an increase in the number of deaths from prostate cancer worldwide. The situation would be further augmented by the presence of a temporal trend in risk that is widely reported from many countries and unlikely to be entirely artefact.

Age Factors

[Prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis C virus infection in a hospitalized population in a gastroenterology unit. Role of endoscopic biopsies].

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: In order to study the prevalence and risk factors of HCV infection in a population hospitalized in a Gastroenterology Unit, 3,767 patients were tested for serum anti-HCV, and 2,607 filled out a questionnaire about risk factors. RESULTS: With the RIBA 2 test, the overall prevalence was 5.9%. Because of the age distribution, two populations were studied. In patients younger than 45, intravenous drug use was the only independent risk factor linked to serum anti-HCV positivity (Odds ratio: 151, CI 95%: 66.9-340). In patients older than 45, the independent risk factors were chronic liver disease (Odds ratio: 8.5, CI 95%: 4.4-16.8), per-endoscopic biopsies (Odds ratio: 2.7, CI 95%: 1.4-5.4), and blood transfusions (Odds ratio: 1.8, CI 95%: 0.9-3.5). Two variables were dominant for the entire population: IV drug use and chronic liver disease. In patients without these factors, only one risk factor was linked to serum anti-HCV positivity: perendoscopic biopsies (Odds ratio: 5.2, CI 95%: 1.6-16.5). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that HCV may be transmitted by perendoscopic biopsies.

Adult

Dietary fat, olive oil intake and breast cancer risk.

As part of a population-based case-control study on diet and breast cancer in Spain, the role of dietary fat and vegetable oils in breast cancer etiology was examined. A validated, semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire was completed by 762 women, 18-75 years of age, with histologically confirmed, newly diagnosed breast cancer, and 988 randomly selected female controls. For each food item and nutrient, the study subjects were divided into quartiles according to intake levels, with the lowest quartile serving as the reference category. Adjustment for total energy intake and other potential confounders was made using multiple logistic regression for all women as well as separately for pre- and post-menopausal women. Neither total fat intake nor specific types of fat were significantly associated with breast cancer in pre- or post-menopausal women. However, higher consumption of olive oil (rich in monounsaturated fat) was significantly related to a lower risk of breast cancer [for highest vs. lowest quartile of consumption, odds ratio (OR) = 0.66; 95% CI, 0.46-0.97] with a significant dose-response trend. While these findings do not support a relation between total fat intake and breast cancer risk, they do provide evidence for an inverse association between olive oil (and suggest one between monounsaturated fat) and risk of breast cancer.

Adolescent

Mothers' active and passive smoking during pregnancy and risk of brain tumours in children.

As part of a collaborative study of risk factors for childhood brain tumours, the effects of the mother's smoking and her potential for passive smoking exposure during the pregnancy were assessed in a case-control study. Parents of 91 cases and 321 population controls from Northern Italy, matched for age, sex and residence, were interviewed about their lifetime smoking habits. Mother's smoking during pregnancy was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.7 (95% CI 0.8, 3.8) of brain tumour in her child although this was not statistically significant. Among non-smoking mothers, the risk for light and heavy exposure to passive smoking was 1.7 (0.8, 3.6) and 2.2 (1.1, 4.5) respectively, and a statistically significant dose-response relationship was found (p trend = 0.02). These results must be interpreted within the constraints of the relatively small sample size and the likely misclassification produced by the difference between the potential for exposure to passive smoke and the true exposure. However, they add another piece of information to the growing body of evidence available about the health consequences both of active and of passive smoking and highlight the need for more information about this putative association.

Adolescent

Some statistical considerations in the analysis of case-control studies when the exposure variables are continuous measurements.

This paper focuses on some statistical considerations in the estimation of dose-response in case-control studies when the exposure variables are continuous measurements. The first point is that the effects of differential variability in the exposure distributions over cases and controls cannot be differentiated from a true quadratic risk model. The second point is that when dealing with variables where zero denotes no exposure, it is important to treat the unexposed subjects separately from those who were exposed. Failure to do so can lead to differential variability among cases and controls and the resulting confounding with a quadratic risk model. Both of these points are illustrated by an example.

Case-Control Studies

Prognosis of chronic pancreatitis: an international multicenter study. International Pancreatitis Study Group.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine which factors predict mortality in a cohort of patients with chronic alcoholic and nonalcoholic pancreatitis. Patients with chronic pancreatitis are known to have a reduced life expectancy, but the quantitative relationship between various clinical features and survival is unclear. METHODS: We evaluated survival among 2015 subjects with chronic pancreatitis treated at seven centers located in six countries. RESULTS: Mean age at diagnosis was 46 +/- 13 yr and mean duration of follow-up was 7.4 +/- 6.2 yr. Overall survival at 10 yr was 70% (95% confidence interval (CI), 68-73%) and at 20 yr was 45% (95% CI, 41-49%). Survival was significantly less than in the background population. There were 559 deaths observed among those with chronic pancreatitis compared with an expected number of 157.4, yielding a standardized mortality ratio (SMR) of 3.6 (95% CI, 3.3-3.9). Older subjects and those with alcoholic pancreatitis had a significant reduction in survival. In a multivariate analysis, mortality of middle-aged and older subjects was 2.3 (95% CI, 1.8-2.8) and 6.3 (95% CI, 4.7-8.3) times greater than subjects less than 40 yr at diagnosis. Smoking (hazard ratio, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-1.9), drinking (hazard ratio, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.2), or development of cirrhosis (hazard ratio, 2.5; 95% CI, 2.0-3.2) increased the risk of death during the observation period, but we observed no survival difference in operated vs. nonoperated patients. CONCLUSIONS: Age at diagnosis, smoking, and drinking are major predictors of mortality in patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Age of Onset

Aspects of medical history and exocrine carcinoma of the pancreas: a population-based case-control study in The Netherlands.

During 1984-88 a population-based case-control study was carried out in The Netherlands, in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, to examine the possible relationship between aspects of medical history and exocrine pancreatic carcinoma in 176 cases and 487 controls. About 58% of patients were interviewed directly. We observed an inverse relationship between medical treatment for allergy-related conditions and the development of pancreatic cancer (30 cases vs. 130 controls, OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.90). A history of gallbladder problems, gallstones, cholecystectomy, stomach or duodenal ulcer, pancreatitis, appendicitis, diabetes or tonsillectomy was not related to risk. In direct responses, compared with once daily, a positive relationship was seen for stool frequency, 10 years ago, of less than once daily (18 cases vs. 40 controls, OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.09 to 4.04). In men, diabetes treated with insulin and diagnosed more than 1 year previously was significantly and positively related to risk (5 cases vs. 1 control, OR 11.66, 95% 1.28 to 105.95). In brief, the results of the present study suggest that a history of allergy-related conditions may protect, whereas a past stool frequency of less than once daily may enhance the risk of cancer of the pancreas. Other elements of the medical history were not consistently related to risk.

Adult

Anthropometric and reproductive variables and exocrine carcinoma of the pancreas: a population-based case-control study in The Netherlands.

During 1984-88 a population-based case-control study was carried out in The Netherlands, in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, to examine the possible relationship between aspects of medical history and exocrine pancreatic carcinoma in 176 cases and 487 controls. About 58% of patients were interviewed directly. In women, a significant, positive dose-response effect of height was seen (p-value trend less than 0.005). Compared with ages 14 or more, women with an early age at menarche, i.e., 11 years or less, had a 3-fold increase in risk (15 cases vs. 23 controls, OR 3.07, 95% CI 1.35 to 7.00). Other apsects of the reproductive history were not related to risk. In brief, the results of the present study support the hypothesis that, in women, early menarche and greater adult stature may be early predictors of the development of cancer of the pancreas later in life.

Adult

Risk factors for gallbladder cancer: a Polish case-control study.

A population-based case-control study of gallbladder cancer was conducted in the south-west of Poland, within the frame-work of the SEARCH Programme of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. A total of 73 cases and 186 controls were interviewed using a questionnaire including demographic and socio-economic factors, education, smoking, alcohol, tea and coffee consumption, and past medical history. A validated diet history was used to estimate the daily intake of calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins, cholesterol, fibres and vitamins C and E. Gallbladder disease was the major determinant of subsequent gallbladder cancer: 41 cases (56%) vs. 15 (8%) controls had a past history of gallbladder disease, corresponding to an odds ratio (OR) of 12.5 (95% confidence interval, 5.8 to 26.6), and the OR was 12.1 for gallbladder problems dating back 20 years or more in the past. There was an inverse relationship with education, the OR being 0.3 (95% CI 0.1 to 1.2) for 13 years of education or more vs. less than 7. Gallbladder cancer risk was positively associated with total calorie intake, with ORs of 1.4, 1.5, 4.1 for the 3 upper quartiles compared with the lowest one (trend, p less than 0.01). Weaker direct associations were observed for proteins, carbohydrates and cholesterol. There was some suggestion of inverse associations with fibre intake, and a more consistent one with vitamins C and E. These results further quantify the role of gallstones, and suggest that total calorie intake and other dietary factors potentially linked with benign gallbladder conditions are involved in the aetiology of gallbladder cancer.

Adult

Lifetime consumption of alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee and exocrine carcinoma of the pancreas: a population-based case-control study in The Netherlands.

From 1984 to 1988 a population-based case-control study was carried out in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, to examine the possible relationship between the habitual lifetime consumption of alcohol, coffee and tea and exocrine pancreatic carcinoma in 176 cases and 487 controls. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to ascertain major life events and obtain estimates of consumption (ever-never) and frequency of consumption throughout life. Logistic regression analyses yielded odds ratios adjusted for age, sex, response status, smoking, dietary intake of energy and vegetables and of alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. When compared with data from non-drinkers, the cumulative lifetime consumption of all types of alcohol in grams of ethanol (ORs 1.00, 0.97, 0.93, 1.25, p trend 0.55), beer, spirits, red wine and fortified wine was not related to risk. The consumption of white wine was inversely associated with risk (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.24-0.70). The uniformly reduced risk estimates for the lifetime number of drinks of white wine were based on small numbers (ORs 1.00, 0.44, 0.25, 0.40, p trend 0.001). When compared with data from non-drinkers, our findings suggest an inverse dose-response relationship for the lifetime consumption of coffee (ORs 1.00, 0.72, 0.37, 0.58, p trend 0.06), whereas lifetime consumption of tea and of ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee was not associated with risk. The absence of an effect of lifetime consumption of decaffeinated coffee may be due to the small numbers of subjects. These results further strengthen existing evidence against a positive association between consumption as well as lifetime consumption of (sources of) alcohol, tea or coffee and the development of exocrine pancreatic cancer.

Alcohol Drinking