Consumption of Dairy Products and the Risk of Developing Breast Cancer in Polish Women.

Lack of consistency in the relationship between dairy products consumption and breast cancer (BC) risk motivated us to evaluate this association in a case-control study of BC among Polish women. The study includes 1699 women 26-79 years of age, 823 BC cases identified in Cancer Registries and 876 randomly selected controls from the national population registry. Using a validated, semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), the consumption of dairy products was collected for a time period of 10-15 years prior to BC diagnosis. We used logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders, to assess the relationship between total dairy consumption as well as individual dairy groups of milk, cottage cheese and hard cheese and BC risk for premenopausal and postmenopausal women. For total consumption, a significant decrease in BC risk was observed with increased consumption of one serving/week, OR trend = 0.98, 2% decrease in risk, for premenopausal women only. For milk, a significant decrease in BC risk was observed for an increase in consumption of one glass/week, OR trend = 0.95, 5% decrease, in both strata of menopause. In contrast, for hard cheese, a significant increase in the risk of 10% was observed only in premenopausal women, OR trend = 1.10. Cottage cheese consumption significantly reduced BC risk by 20%, OR trend = 0.80, for an increase in one serving/week for postmenopausal women only. Our results show that individual dairy products have a statistically significant but bi-directional relationship with BC risk, which differs for premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Has differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) staging changed with in the last ten years in the Silesia region of Poland?

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to compare the advancement of thyroid cancer at diagnosis in Polish patients from the Silesian district in the years 1999 and 2008. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The analyzed group consisted of Silesian district patients with thyroid cancer, who were registered by the Department of Tumour Epidemiology of the Institute of Oncology in Gliwice in the years 1999 and 2008. From a group of 186 patients who entered on record in 1999, 167 were qualified for this analysis. Similarly, from 238 patients registered in 2008, finally 226 were added. We analyzed: sex, age at diagnosis, histotype of thyroid cancer, and DTC staging according to TNM (UICC 2002). In 1999 there were 137 females (82.04 %) and 30 males (17.93%) with thyroid cancer diagnosed at ages 5-81 years. In 2008 there were 183 females (80.97%) and 43 males (19.03%) diagnosed at ages 14-80 years. In both groups, in 1999 and 2008, the median age was the same (51 years). RESULTS: In the year 1999, 119 (71%) and in 2008, 197 (87%) patients were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer (p = 0.0003). Relations between age and sex were similar in these years. There was some increase in frequency of patients diagnosed with papillary microcancer (pT1a), which was on the border of statistical significance (p = 0.05). A statistically significant increase of pT1 (p = 0.02) and decrease of pT4 (p = 0.001) and of pTx (p = 0.002) was observed in the year 2008 in the whole cohort of DTC patients. CONCLUSIONS: 1. In 2008 the contribution of papillary histotype to all thyroid cancer patients (87%) was significantly higher than in 1999. 2. The percentage of DTC patients diagnosed with pT1 disease was significantly higher in 2008.

[Air quality vs. morbidity to lung cancer in selected provinces and localities of the Silesian region]. / Jakosc powietrza atmosferycznego a zapadalnosc na nowotwory pluc w wybranych miejscowosciach i powiatach województwa slaskiego.

The objective of the study was analysis of the relationship between the quality of ambient air and icidence of lung cancer based on the results of measurements of selected indicator substances and epidemiological data from the localities/provinces in the Silesian Region. The levels of pyrene, benzoanthracene, benzopyrene and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene were analysed, as well as the concentrations of PM10 fractions sampled on glass fibre filters at sampling stations in 5 localities and 8 provinces in the Silesian Region. The classification of morbidity to lung cancer for the localities and provinces in the study was presented based on the data from the Regional Silesian Cancer Registry. In the group of males a relationship was observed between an increased morbidity to lung cancer and an increasing concentration of pyrene and PM10 respirable dust fraction in ambient air. The preliminary analyses confirmed the strong effect of the quality of ambient air on incidence of lung cancer in the Silesian Region.

Familial lung cancer risk among women in Poland.

A case-control study involving 1058 women with histologically confirmed lung cancer and 2116 healthy controls, was conducted in Poland between 2004 and 2007. The aim of this study was to examine of the role of familial aggregation of lung cancer in women. Multivariate analysis has shown that family history of lung cancer in a first-degree relative significantly increases the risk of lung cancer (OR=1.61, p=0.0003). For cases with early onset of the disease (<55 years) we observed significantly elevated risk of lung cancer (OR=2.48, p=0.0001). Results of our analysis confirmed synergistic influence of smoking and family history of lung cancer (OR=12.91, p=0.0000).

Epidemiology of lung and larynx cancers in coal mines in Upper Silesia--preliminary results.

The results of the preliminary analysis of the risk of lung and larynx cancers among coal miners in Upper Silesia are presented. The risk increases substantially during the work under conditions of short-lived radon progeny hazard, especially when the concentration of alpha potential energy of short-lived radon progeny is higher than 2.5 (microJ m(-3)) that corresponds to the possibility of receiving the effective dose higher than 6 mSv y(-1). Significant differences of the risk are noticed between sub-populations of autochthon-miners and immigrant-miners: it was found that the relative risk for immigrant-miners was up to 2 times higher than for autochthon-miners.