• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3889-3892
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• 2012

Aims: The purposes of this study were to (1) to identify the causes of cancer in breast cancer survivors in Taiwan; and (2) to investigate the influence of demographic characteristics and breast cancer-related factors on the cause of cancer. Materials and method: This study details the related investigative results on survivors with breast cancer using a descriptive and correlational design. A convenience sampling approach was employed. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the participants. Results: A total of 230 breast cancer survivors completed the questionnaire. Low-scoring cause of cancer participants were older adults (OR = 2.49, p<0.05) who were already of menopausal status (OR = 2.28, p < 0.05). Around 72% of particpants agreed high responsibility. Our breast cancer survivors felt stress had caused their breast cancer. Conclusion: These findings are helpful in understanding the relationship between cause of cancer and related factors in breast cancer survivors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.483-488
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• 2014

Aim: This study employed public use National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) data to investigate the association between urinary cadmium (UDPSI) and all cause, all cancer and prostate cancer mortalities in men. Patients and Methods: NHANES III household adult, laboratory and mortality data were merged. The sampling weight used was WTPFEX6, with SDPPSU6 applied for the probability sampling unit and SDPSTRA6 to designate the strata for the survey analysis. Results: For prostate cancer death, the significant univariates were UDPSI, age, weight, and drinking. Under multivariate logistic regression, the significant covariates were age and weight. For all cause mortality in men, the significant covariates were UDPSI, age, and poverty income ratio. For all cancer mortality in men, the significant covariates were UDPSI, age, black and Mexican race. Conclusions: UDPSI was a predictor of all cause and all cancer mortalities in men as well as prostate cancer mortality.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2643-2648
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• 2016

Background: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels are lower in Japanese compared with Western subjects. Since it is uncertain whether hsCRP is a potent predictor of mortality at low CRP concentrations, the present study examined associations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a large population of Japanese. Materials and Methods: Subjects were 4,737 men and 6,343 women aged 49-76 years participating in the baseline survey of an ongoing cohort study of lifestyle-related diseases between February 2004 and July 2006. Hazard ratios for all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with hsCRP levels were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: A total of 436 all-cause deaths occurred during a median follow-up of 8 years. The main cause of death was cancer. In men, hsCRP levels were positively associated with the risk of all-cause mortality as well as deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD). All-cause mortality hazards for the 2nd (0.34-0.84 mg/L) and the 3rd (${\geq}0.85mg/L$) tertiles of hsCRP were 1.27 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93-1.73) and 1.75 (1.30-2.37), respectively (p for trend=0.001). In women, increased risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with elevated hsCRP levels was observed, but the associations were not statistically significant. Conclusions: HsCRP may be an independent predictor of all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality in apparently healthy Japanese men, but not women. The differential effect of hsCRP in predicting mortality risk by sex warrants further investigation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.159-163
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• 2013

Background: This study used Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) pancreatic cancer data to identify predictive models and potential socio-economic disparities in pancreatic cancer outcome. Materials and Methods: For risk modeling, Kaplan Meier method was used for cause specific survival analysis. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov's test was used to compare survival curves. The Cox proportional hazard method was applied for multivariate analysis. The area under the ROC curve was computed for predictors of absolute risk of death, optimized to improve efficiency. Results: This study included 58,747 patients. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 7.6 (10.6) months. SEER stage and grade were strongly predictive univariates. Sex, race, and three socio-economic factors (county level family income, rural-urban residence status, and county level education attainment) were independent multivariate predictors. Racial and socio-economic factors were associated with about 2% difference in absolute cause specific survival. Conclusions: This study s found significant effects of socio-economic factors on pancreas cancer outcome. These data may generate hypotheses for trials to eliminate these outcome disparities.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5681-5685
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• 2012

Three kinds of survival rates are generally used depending on the purpose of the investigation: overall, cause-specific, and relative. The differences among these 3 survival rates are derived from their respective formulas; however, reports based on actual cancer registry data are few because of incomplete information and short follow-up duration recorded on cancer registration. The aim of this study was to numerically and visually compare these 3 survival rates on the basis of data from the Nagasaki Prefecture Cancer Registry. Subjects were patients diagnosed with cancer and registered in the registry between 1999 and 2003. We calculated the proportion of cause of death and 5-year survival rates. For lung, liver, or advanced stage cancers, the proportions of cancer-related death were high and the differences in survival rates were small. For prostate or early stage cancers, the proportions of death from other causes were high and the differences in survival rates were large. We concluded that the differences among the 3 survival rates increased when the proportion of death from other causes increased.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.196-203
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• 2012

Objectives: Even though experimental studies have suggested that iron can be involved in generating oxidative stress, epidemiologic studies on the association of markers of body iron stores with cardiovascular disease or cancer remain controversial. This study was performed to examine the association of serum ferritin and transferrin saturation (%TS) with all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality. Methods: The study subjects were men aged 50 years or older and postmenopausal women of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1988-1994. Participants were followed-up for mortality through December 31, 2006. Results: Serum ferritin was not associated with all-cause, cancer, or cardiovascular mortality for either men or postmenopausal women. However, all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality were inversely associated with %TS in men. Compared with men in the lowest quintile, adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular mortality were 0.85, 0.86, 0.76, and 0.74 ($p$ for trend < 0.01), 0.82, 0.73, 0.75, and 0.63 ($p$ for trend < 0.01), and 0.86, 0.81, 0.72, and 0.76 ($p$ for trend < 0.01), respectively. For postmenopausal women, inverse associations were also observed for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, but cancer mortality showed the significantly lower mortality only in the 2nd quintile of %TS compared with that of the 1st quintile. Conclusions: Unlike speculation on the role of iron from experimental studies, %TS was inversely associated with allcause, cancer and cardiovascular mortality in men and postmenopausal women. On the other hand, serum ferritin was not associated with all-cause, cancer, or cardiovascular mortality.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2259-2263
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• 2013

Background: Public use National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES III linked mortality data were here applied to investigate the association between health insurance coverage and all cause and all cancer mortality in adults. Patients and Methods: NHANES III household adult, laboratory and mortality data were merged. Only patients examined in the mobile examination center (MEC) were included in this study. The sampling weight employed was WTPFEX6, SDPPSU6 being used for the probability sampling unit and SDPSTRA6 to designate the strata for the survey analysis. All cause and all cancer mortalities were used as binary outcomes. The effect of health insurance coverage status on all cause and all cancer mortalities were analyzed with potential socioeconomic, behavioral and health status confounders. Results: There were 2398 sample persons included in this study. The mean age was 40 years and the mean (S.E.) follow up was 171.85 (3.12) person months from the MEC examination. For all cause mortality, the odds ratios (significant p-values) of the covariates were: age, 1.0095 (0.000); no health insurance coverage (using subjects with health insurance), 1.71 (0.092); black race (using non-Hispanic white subjects as the reference group) 1.43, (0.083); Mexican-Americans, 0.60 (0.089); DMPPIR, 0.82, (0.000); and drinking hard liquor, 1.014 (0.007). For all cancer mortality, the odds ratio (significant p-values) of the covariates were: age, 1.0072 (0.00); no health insurance coverage, using with health coverage as the reference group, 2.91 (0.002); black race, using non-Hispanic whites as the reference group, 1.64 (0.047); Mexican Americans, 0.33 (0.008) and smoking, 1.017 (0.118). Conclusion: There was a 70% increase in risk of all cause death and almost 300% of all cancer death for people without any health insurance coverage.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2013

Cancer is the first leading cause of death in Korea and the second leading cause of death in the USA. There is extensive research into prevention of cancer and the support of oncology patients with diet or dietary supplements. In vitro and in vivo animal studies have indicated that antioxidants, including beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, and ascorbic acid, can yield anti-cancer effects in addition to providing protection against oxidative damage. Although many observational studies have shown that consuming fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of some cancers, the results of several large-scale human intervention trials testing the benefits of a single or combined higher-dose of individual micronutrients have been inconsistent. Cancer can cause profound metabolic and physiological changes which may affect patients' nutrient requirements. Although the optimal route of nutrient delivery is through diet, cancer patients often suffer symptoms that disrupt their food intake, including anorexia, premature satiety, altered taste and smell, and changes in bowel mobility. In particular, micronutrient deficits can slow postoperative healing, contribute to depression symptoms, and decrease immune competence. Cancer patients are generally motivated to take dietary supplements to improve responses to treatment and quality of life. The Physician's Health Study II (PHS II) randomized controlled trial reported recently that daily multivitamin supplementation significantly, albeit modestly, reduced the risk of total cancer. Although evidence of multivitamin use benefits is limited in cancer patients, taking dietary supplements with constituents in the range of the recommended daily allowance according to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) recommendation is generally considered to be safe.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2567-2570
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• 2013

Background: This study analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data to assess if socio-economic factors (SEFs) impact on endometrial cancer survival. Materials and Methods: Endometrial cancer patients treated from 2004-2007 were included in this study. SEER cause specific survival (CSS) data were used as end points. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were computed for predictors. Time to event data were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify independent risk factors. Results: This study included 64,710 patients. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 28.2 (20.8) months. SEER staging (ROC area of 0.81) was the best pretreatment predictor of CSS. Histology, grade, race/ethnicity and county level family income were also significant pretreatment predictors. African American race and low income neighborhoods decreased the CSS by 20% and 3% respectively at 5 years. Conclusions: This study has found significant endometrial survival disparities due to SEFs. Future studies should focus on eliminating socio-economic barriers to good outcomes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6253-6255
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• 2014

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is considered to be a main cause of malignancy-related death in the world, being commonly diagnosed in both men and women. It is the third leading cause of cancer dependent death in the world and there are one million new cases diagnosed per year. In Iran the incidence of colorectal cancer has increased during the last 25 years and it is the fifth cause of cancer in men and the third in women. Materials and Methods: In this article we analyzed the survival of 475 colorectal patients of Taleghani hospital in Tehran with the semi-parametric competing-risks model. Results: There were 55% male cases and at the time of the diagnosis most of the patients were between 48 and 67years old. The probability of a patient death from colorectal cancer with survival of more than 25 years was about 0.4. Body mass index, height, tumour site and gender had no influence. Conclusions: According to these data and by using semi-parametric competing-risks method, we found out that only age at diagnosis has a significant effect on these patient survival time.