Adolescent elite athletes' cigarette smoking, use of snus, and alcohol.

The purpose was to examine cigarette smoking, use of snus, alcohol, and performance-enhancing illicit drugs among adolescent elite athletes and controls, and possible gender and sport group differences. First-year students at 16 Norwegian Elite Sport High Schools (n = 677) and two randomly selected high schools (controls, n = 421) were invited to participate. Totally, 602 athletes (89%) and 354 (84%) controls completed the questionnaire. More controls than athletes were smoking, using snus, and drinking alcohol. Competing in team sports was associated with use of snus [odds ratio = 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6 to 4.7] and a similar percentage of male and female handball (22.2% vs 18.8%) and soccer players (15.7% vs 15.0%) reported using snus. For controls, not participating in organized sport was a predictor for smoking (odds ratio = 4.9, 95% CI 2.2 to 10.9). Female athletes were more prone to drink alcohol than males (46.3% vs 31.0%, P < 0.001). Only, 1.2% athletes and 2.8% controls reported use of performance-enhancing illicit drugs. In conclusion, use of legal drugs is less common among athletes, but this relationship depends on type of sport and competition level. The association between team sports and use of snus suggests that sport subcultures play a role.

Dieting to win or to be thin? A study of dieting and disordered eating among adolescent elite athletes and non-athlete controls.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of dieting, reasons for dieting and prevalence of disordered eating among adolescent elite athletes and age-matched controls, and to examine the differences between athletes competing in leanness and non-leanness sports. METHODS: First-year students of 16 different Norwegian Elite Sport High Schools (athlete group, n = 682) and two randomly selected ordinary high schools from a county representative of the general Norwegian population (control group, n = 423) were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study. A total of 606 athletes and 355 controls completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 89% and 84%, respectively. The questionnaire contained questions regarding training patterns, menstrual status and history, dieting, use of pathogenic weight control methods and the drive for thinness (DT) and body dissatisfaction (BD) subscales from the Eating Disorders Inventory. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Disordered eating, defined as meeting one or more of the following criteria: DT score > or =15 (girls) and > or =10 (boys), BD score > or =14 (girls) and > or =10 (boys), body mass index <17.9 kg/m(2) (girls) and <17.5 kg/m(2) (boys), current and/or > or =3 previous efforts to lose weight, use of pathogenic weight control methods and self-reported menstrual dysfunction. RESULTS: A higher prevalence of control subjects were dieting and classified with disordered eating compared with the athletes. An improvement of appearance was a more common reason for dieting among controls compared with athletes. No differences in dieting or disordered eating were found between leanness and non-leanness sports athletes. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported disordered eating is more prevalent among controls than adolescent elite athletes, and losing weight to enhance performance is an important reason for dieting among adolescent elite athletes.

Antitumor activity of P-4055 (elaidic acid-cytarabine) compared to cytarabine in metastatic and s.c. human tumor xenograft models.

The antineoplastic efficacy of P-4055, a 5'-elaidic acid (C18:1, unsaturated fatty acid) ester of cytarabine, a nucleoside antimetabolite frequently used in the treatment of hematological malignancies, was examined in several in vivo models for human cancer. In initial dose-finding studies in nude mice, the efficacy of P-4055 was highest when using schedules with repeated daily doses. In a Raji Burkitt's lymphoma leptomeningeal carcinomatosis model in nude rats, the control cytarabine- and saline-treated animals (five in each group) had a mean survival time of 13.2 days, whereas treatment with P-4055 resulted in three of five long-time survivors (>70 days). In a systemic Raji leukemia model in nude mice, 8 of 10 of the P-4055-treated animals survived (>80 days), compared with none of the cytarabine-treated animals (mean survival time, 34.2 days). In s.c. xenograft models, the effects of maximum tolerated doses of P-4055 and cytarabine, given in four weekly cycles of daily bolus i.v. injections for 5 subsequent days, against seven tumors (three melanomas, one lung adenocarcinoma, one breast cancer, and two osteogenic sarcomas) were investigated. P-4055 induced partial or complete tumor regression of the lung carcinoma, as well as of all three malignant melanomas. In two of the melanomas the activity was highly superior to that of cytarabine, and both P-4055 and cytarabine were, in general, more effective than several clinically established drugs previously tested in the same tumor models. In in vitro studies, inhibitors of nucleoside carrier-dependent transport, nitrobenzylmercaptopurine riboside and dipyridamol, reduced strongly the cellular sensitivity to cytarabine, but not to P-4055, indicating that P-4055 uses an alternative/additional mechanism of internalization into the cell compared with cytarabine. The results explain, at least in part, the observed differences between the two compounds in in vivo efficacy, and together the data strongly support the evaluation of P-4055 in clinical studies.