Effect of smoking on breast cancer in carriers of mutant BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes

BACKGROUND: Smoking has carcinogenic effects, and possibly antiestrogenic effects as well, but it has not been found to be a risk factor for breast cancer in women in the general population. However, hereditary breast cancer is primarily a disease of premenopausal women, and interactions between genes and hormonal and environmental risk factors may be particularly important in this subgroup. METHODS: We conducted a matched case-control study of breast cancer among women who have been identified to be carriers of a deleterious mutation in either the BRCA1 or the BRCA2 gene. These women were assessed for genetic risk at one of several genetic counseling programs for cancer in North America. Information about lifetime smoking history was derived from a questionnaire routinely administered to women who were found to carry a mutation in either gene. Smoking histories of case subjects with breast cancer and age-matched healthy control subjects were compared. Odds ratios for developing breast cancer were determined for smokers versus nonsmokers by use of conditional logistic regression for matched sets after adjustment for other known risk factors. RESULTS: Subjects with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations and breast cancer were significantly more likely to have been nonsmokers than were subjects with mutations and without breast cancer (two-sided P = .007). In a multivariate analysis, subjects with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations who had smoked cigarettes for more than 4 pack-years (i.e., number of packs per day multiplied by the number of years of smoking) were found to have a lower breast cancer risk (odds ratio = 0.46, 95% confidence interval = 0.27-0.80; two-sided P = .006) than subjects with mutations who never smoked. CONCLUSIONS: This study raises the possibility that smoking reduces the risk of breast cancer in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.     

The potentials of indirect calorimetry in the differential assessment of the metabolic status of obese patients with insulin-independent diabetes mellitus

Twenty-one obese patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, 16 female and 5 male ones, were fed similar isocaloric rations, differing only by the share of substitution of the traditional protein products (0%, 60%, 30%, 45%) in the Danpro-S, Danpro-Fibre soybean protein concentrate. The parameters tested were daily glycemia, C-peptides, blood hydrocortisone, and urinary excretion of nitrous metabolites. Indirect calorimetry was used to assess the protein, fat, and carbohydrate oxidation rates at rest. Addition of proteins of a plant origin to the diets of such patients was associated with significant changes of the energy metabolism at rest at the expense of increased oxidation of carbohydrates and reduced protein catabolism, that may be regarded as a favorable effect. In this patient population a 30% soybean diet brings about an almost maximal positive effect in patients with the first degree of obesity, whereas in those with the second degree of obesity such effect is attained by the 45% soybean diet.     

Surgical treatment of portal hypertension with ascites using ileovesicopexy under experimental conditions

Experiments conducted with albino rats have evidenced that under the effect of an atherogenic ration the level of lipids and cholesterol in the blood plasma and hepatic tissue and of sillac acids in the blood plasma increased. In the aortic intima the content of acid mucopolysaccharides was rising, this being attended by a concurrent swelling of the main interstitial substance and of the collagen fibers in the subendothelial layer. An addition of apple pectin or of cellulose to the atherogenic ration deferred the development of the mentioned changes.     

The dynamic indices of lipid peroxidation and of the antioxidant system under the influence of surgical treatment in ovarian cystoma]

To treat patients with suppurative diseases of the bronchi, lung, and pleura, the new aseptic myramistine was topically applied as 0.005% myramistine solution in isotonic sodium chloride solution in 28 patients with acute and chronic pleural empyema, acute abscess of the lung, and suppurative endobronchitis-complicated bronchoectatic disease. The therapy made it possible to arrest the intoxication syndrome, to achieve abacillation of contents in the cavities of empyema, abscesses, and bronchoectases, to cure endobronchitis, to obliterate destructive cavities in the lung more rapidly and to prepare patients for a planned surgical intervention more valuably and to improve the results of surgical treatment. The studies allow the antiseptic myramistine to be recommended for topical treatment of pyodestructive diseases of the lung.