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Biomedical subjects

S Graham

Publications and source records attributed to S Graham.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Dietary history from the distant past: a methodological study.

One of the major concerns regarding case-control studies of diet and cancer is that dietary measures based on current habits may not accurately reflect dietary intake from the time period of cancer initiation and early promotion in the more distant past. Thus, the extent to which current diet correlates with past diet and the reliability of retrospective estimates of past diet are important questions for researchers investigating dietary factors in cancer causation. For these reasons, we conducted this study of the reliability of dietary history as recalled from the distant past. Individuals (N = 175) who completed dietary interviews between the years 1957 and 1965 were reinterviewed in 1982. Subjects were asked to report the usual frequency of intake of selected food items, both at the time of their original interview in the 1957-1965 era as well as at the current time. Dietary histories as recalled from the distant past more closely agreed with those originally recorded than did current diets. The diets as recalled from the distant past appeared to be biased, however, by current dietary habits. The implications of these findings for diet and cancer research are discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Toward a dietary prevention of cancer.

I have attempted to address in brief fashion the question as to whether we can recommend a dietary prevention of cancer. This same question was explored in hundreds of pages recently by the large number of advisors assembled by the National Academy of Sciences to assess the animal, cell culture, and human data with regard to diet and cancer (52). My brief assessment has resulted in recommendations to the scientific community not unlike those of the National Academy, but without their clear-cut recommendation against dietary fat. It is obvious that we need a great deal more research on the factors evaluated here, that is, fiber, ascorbic acid, retinoids, the cruciferae, nitrates, alcohol, coffee, saccharine, alpha-tocopherol, aflatoxins, selenium, and saturated and polyunsaturated fats. These factors need assessment not only as they might affect the incidence of any single cancer, but also in relationship to at least the incidence of the cancers that frequently occur in humans. The human epidemiologic inquires have barely begun. We have a few studies of cancer of the colon and of cancer of the lung, and only one or two studies of such important sites as cancer of the larynx, oropharynx, stomach, and breast. Not only have the studies of specific sites been lamentably too few, but only a small number of nutrients have been evaluated. To make matters worse, we have little notion as to the competing risk of different cancers and of other diseases associated with various nutrients. There may be factors that enhance the risk of some diseases at the same time they reduce the risk of others. It is not outside the realm of possibility that the relationship discovered to date with regard to serum cholesterol, heart disease, and cancer may continue to be replicated and may be found related to ingestion of dietary fats. If such should be the case, and the potential is there, we would need to weigh the risks associated with reducing dietary fats for cancer as well as for coronary disease. Questions will need to be answered. For example, what is the optimum level of serum cholesterol to lower the risk of heart disease and at the same time not to enhance the risk of cancer. The same may be said for the association of alcohol with the risk of coronary disease compared to the risk of cancer of the upper alimentary tract.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1983

Diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma: computed tomography, sonography, and fine-needle aspiration biopsy.

The diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma was made prospectively and noninvasively in four patients with the use of sonography, computed tomography, and sonographically guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy. The imaging methods revealed information similar to the operative findings, with clear superiority of computed tomography over sonography. These noninvasive methods may be used as screening tools, especially among groups or in regional areas with a high risk for asbestos exposure. The findings included soft-tissue masses with invariable involvement of the omentum; small intraperitoneal nodules; thickened peritoneum, mesentery, and bowel wall; pleural plaques; and usually minimal, if any, ascites. Since the differential diagnosis from peritoneal carcinomatosis may be difficult, sonographically (or CT) guided aspiration biopsy is needed to produce diagnostic cytologic specimens. The use of this type of biopsy should obviate surgical exploration.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Diet in the epidemiology of carcinoma of the prostate gland.

In vivo, in vitro, prospective, and retrospective epidemiologic inquiries have suggested that retinoids inhibit cancer, and fats have been hypothesized to enhance and ascorbic acid to reduce cancer risk. Comparison of 260 patients from Buffalo with cancer of the prostate gland was made with two different control series of similar size and age distribution. Regardless of the control group, risk of prostate cancer gained with increases in ingestion of retinoids, animal fats, and vitamin C. These anomalous findings may be due to peculiarities in methodology. From the possible specificity of effect of the nutrients studied, as shown in experimental animals and in vitro, a hypothesis could be made that a substance like vitamin A or C, which may inhibit certain cancers, also may enhance risk of other cancer types or have neither effect.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Diet and smoking in the epidemiology of cancer of the cervix.

This study of 513 white cervical cancer patients and 490 white hospitalized controls considered, with adjustment for marital history and parity, the effects of smoking and dietary characteristics on the relative risk of developing cervical cancer. Although smoking was shown to be positively associated with risk, no dose-response relationship was evident. The frequency of consumption of cruciferous vegetables was positively associated with risk. Respondent reports of the frequency of prior ingestion of several food items were used in constructing crude indices of exposure to basic nutrients; the index of beta-carotene exposure was negatively associated with risk, whereas the index of fat consumption was positively associated with risk.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1983

A case-control study of dietary and nondietary factors in ovarian cancer.

A case-control study is presented that estimates ovarian cancer risk for various factors, including diet. Data collected by interview between 1957 and 1965 for 274 white women aged 30-79 years with epithelial carcinoma of the ovary are compared to data similarly collected for 1,034 hospital controls. Relative risk estimates are presented for the total group as well as for premonopausal (ages 30-49) and postmenopausal (ages 50-79) are groups. In the total group, cancer risk increased with increasing age at first marriage (P less than .01) and previous history of benign breast disease (P less than 0.1), and risk decreased with increasing number of previous pregnancies (P less than .01). In the 50- to 79-year age group, a marginally significant trend for decreasing risk with increasing obesity was observed (P less than .10). There was no significant risk (i.e., P less than .10) associated with the consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, tea, total dietary protein, vitamin C, or fat at any age. In the 30- to 49-year age group only, increased risk (P less than .01) was seen in women reporting diets low in fiber and vitamin A from fruit and vegetable sources. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the apparent protective effect of vitamin A in the 30- to 49-year age group (but not dietary fiber) was independent of the nondietary factors analyzed in this study (P less than .05).

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The progestogen-only mini-pill.

A review is presented of the existing literature on the progestogen-only "mini-pill", a greatly under-used method of contraception. The under-use appears to stem from a lack of awareness on the part of medical advisers of the reasonable efficacy and minor side effects of the method. The benefits and disadvantages have been carefully evaluated and recommendations made for the more widespread use of progestogen-only mini-pills.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗
PubMed1982

Secretory/excretory antigens produced by tetrathyridia of Mesocestoides corti defined by SDS--PAGE and HPLC.

Antigens derived from culture medium in which metacestodes of Mesocestoides corti Hoeppli, 1925, had been maintained were studied by sodium-dodecyl-sulfate--polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS--PAGE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). By SDS--PAGE a minimum of 18 Coomassie-staining bands were discerned, of which 4 major bands and 4 major peaks by HPLC of similar molecular weights were observed. The HPLC eluate peaks were analyzed for antigenic activity in vitro by double diffusion in two dimensions, and in vivo in a rabbit. The rabbit had been artificially sensitized with a dialyzable leukocyte extract, showing transfer-factor-like activity, from peritoneal exudate cells removed from mice infected with tetrathyridia. All of the HPLC fractions reacted with rabbit antibody prepared against secretory/excretory antigens, but the sensitized rabbit responded only to two fractions. It is now possible by HPLC to fractionate complex antigens without denaturing them and to elucidate further the role they play during infection.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Sex partners and herpes simplex virus type 2 in the epidemiology of cancer of the cervix.

The authors examined the interaction of exposure to various numbers of sex partners and evidence of antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in cervical neoplasia in 181 cases of cervical dysplasia, carcinoma in situ and cancer of the cervix and 130 control patients in Los Angeles County, California hospitals, in 1974-1979. Studies by the authors and other investigators have found that risk of cancer of the cervix was enhanced with numbers of sex partners, frequency and duration of using the vaginal douche, early age at first pregnancy, and antibodies to HSV-2 as measured by radioimmunoassay. In this study, it was found that for women with only one or no sex partner in their history, risk was elevated if evidence of antibodies to HSV-2 were present. The same was true for women with two or more sex partners. The risk associated with two or more sex partners was not higher than that for women with one sex partner among those positive for HSV-2, and among those negative for HSV-2. Thus, although this inquiry needs replication on larger numbers of women, whatever the other microorganisms or carcinogens patients were exposed to with multiple sex partners, there was no apparent effect beyond the fact that HSV-2 raises the risk of cancer of the cervix. This may strengthen credence in the hypothesis that HSV-2 is an etiologic factor in cervical cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Diet in the epidemiology of breast cancer.

A variety of studies have shown that diets high in fat, particularly polyunsaturated, have enhanced the production of tumors in animals challenged with chemical carcinogens. Other studies have found an apparent contradiction of no difference in the incidence of breast cancer among women with varying levels of serum cholesterol as measured decades earlier. The present study concerns 2024 breast cancer cases and 1463 control patients without neoplasms or pathology of the reproductive and digestive organs, seen at Roswell Park Memorial Institute from 1958 to 1965. Based upon the assessments of their varying ingestion of fats from their own reports of diets, no difference in risk was found. Similarly, there was no difference in risk of breast cancer associated with ingesting diets containing various levels of either vitamin C or the cruciferous vegetables. Risk for breast cancer in women 55 years of age and older increased somewhat with decreases in ingestion of foods containing vitamin A.

Aging↗
PubMed1982

Caffeine consumption and benign breast disease: a case-control comparison.

In this case-control comparison of 323 women with benign breast disease and 1,458 controls, no differences were noted in the coffee and tea consumption patterns of the cases and controls. These findings do not support the recent suggestion of Minton, et al, that methylxanthine ingestion is causally related to benign breast disease or breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Parity and colorectal cancer risk in women.

A case-control study is reported of reproductive history and colorectal cancer risk based on information obtained from interviews with white women 40--79 years old who were admitted to Roswell Park Memorial Institute between the years 1957 and 1965. Women with the primary diagnosis of carcinoma of the colon (n = 284) and carcinoma of the rectum (n = 270) did not differ significantly in their prior reproductive histories as compared to those of a control group of women (n = 1,763) with nonneoplastic diseases not affecting the breast or reproductive sites. The peritinent literature suggesting a parity--colorectal cancer association in women is reviewed. The conclusion reached is that the evidence for a parity-colorectal cancer association is equivocal; but that if such an association exists, it is probably weaker than that seen for cancers of the breast, ovary, and uterine corpus.

Adult↗