Western Lifestyle Responsible for UK Breast Cancer Surge LONDON—A Western lifestyle characterized by an excess of food and alcohol and a lack of exercise may explain increasing breast cancer rates in the United Kingdom, new data suggest.
Findings from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) show that the breast cancer rate in the United Kingdom is more than four times higher than in eastern Africa, which has the lowest breast cancer rate worldwide.
The organization recently reported that 87.9 women per 100,000 in the United Kingdom were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 versus only 19.3 women per 100,000 women in eastern Africa, which includes Kenya and Tanzania.
Cancer experts have suggested that the growing gap in breast cancer rates between rich and poor countries may be partly a function of better surveillance and diagnosis in wealthier countries. They also emphasize, however, that lifestyle is an important contributor.
In fact, it is estimated that 40% of breast cancer cases in the United Kingdom, or more than 18,000 cases per year, could be avoided if women adopted a healthier lifestyle involving a better diet, more exercise, and less alcohol.
Women in eastern Africa consume less alcohol than UK women and are less likely to be obese. They are also more likely to breastfeed, and breastfeeding has been associated with a lower rate of breast cancer.
Rachel Thompson, MD, with the WCRF, said that breast cancer is not the only cancer for which lifestyle may be a contributor. In fact, roughly a third of the most common cancers in the United Kingdom could be prevented by lifestyle changes, she noted.
No Evidence that Statins Cause Cancer
STOCKHOLM—Statins do not in - crease the risk of cancer, according to the results of a large meta-analysis released at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2010.
Researchers from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and the University of Sydney, Australia, said in a news release that their results will “reassure the millions of people worldwide who are taking statins to lower cholesterol levels and clarify earlier research that had raised concerns of a causal link.”
The data are from the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration, which reviewed data from 170,000 patients enrolled in 26 trials. Overall, 10,000 patients developed cancer and more than 3500 died of cancer.
“Statin therapy had no adverse effect on cancer at any site or in any group of individuals, irrespective of their cholesterol levels,” said principal investigator Jonathan Emberson, MD, of the University of Oxford. “There was also no association of cancer with statin dose or duration.”
The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, and the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia).
Overactive Bladder without Hematuria May Be Cancer Symptom
TORONTO—Overactive bladder (OA B) symptoms without hematuria may be a presenting symptom of bladder cancer, researchers reported at the joint annual meeting of the International Con - tinence Society and International Urogynecological Association.
Most patients with bladder cancer present with hematuria.
Jeffrey Weiss, MD, of State University of New York Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, and colleagues searched a database for the years 1998 through 2008 to identify patients without hematuria who underwent cystoscopy as part of an evaluation for refractory OAB.
Overall, 1420 patients underwent cystoscopy, and eight were found to have bladder cancer. The mean duration of OAB symptoms was 3.3 years.
In all cases, the initial biopsy in patients with bladder cancer demonstrated low-grade Ta transitional carcinoma that, in most cases, resembled a typical papillary transitional cell tumor on cystoscopy. At a mean follow-up of 5.2 years, four (50%) patients had experienced one or two recurrences and two had disease progression—in one case to carcinoma in situ and in the other case to high-grade T3 disease.
The study also found that bladder cancer was 10 times more common in women with OAB than men with OAB despite the fact that it is two to three times more common in men than in women in the general population.
Because OAB symptoms without hematuria may be an initial symptom of bladder cancer, patients with OAB symptoms even without hematuria should be advised to undergo cystoscopy to rule out underlying bladder cancer, the authors said