International Agency for Research on Cancer

About: International Agency for Research on Cancer is a government organization based out in Lyon, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 2989 authors who have published 9010 publications receiving 929752 citations. The organization is also known as: IARC.

The exposome: from concept to utility

Abstract: the broad sense of ‘non-genetic’. The exposome, therefore, complements the genome by providing a comprehensive description of lifelong exposure history. Remaining focused on the element of application (to epidemiology) is a key to ensuring that the exposome is translated from concept to utility for better delineating the causes and prevention of human disease. At the time of the original proposal, it was recognized that whereas exquisite tools had been developed to sequence the human genome and to interrogate individual susceptibility through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), there was a relative paucity of comparable tools, or indeed investment, in relation to exposure assessment. Given that cancer and other chronic diseases develop predominantly from a combination of environmental exposures played out on a particular genetic background, the inability to measure one part of the gene:environment combination with anything approaching the precision of the other will stymie progress. This becomes particularly acute as epidemiology aims to tease out relatively modest effect sizes associated with specific environmental exposures. This commentary seeks to further define the exposome and to describe how its realisation may be achieved in epidemiological studies. The commentary focuses on cancer but many of the concepts are applicable to other chronic diseases.

The Definition of Primary and Secondary Glioblastoma

Abstract: Glioblastoma is the most frequent and malignant brain tumor. The vast majority of glioblastomas (~90%) develop rapidly de novo in elderly patients, without clinical or histologic evidence of a less malignant precursor lesion (primary glioblastomas). Secondary glioblastomas progress from low-grade diffuse astrocytoma or anaplastic astrocytoma. They manifest in younger patients, have a lesser degree of necrosis, are preferentially located in the frontal lobe, and carry a significantly better prognosis. Histologically, primary and secondary glioblastomas are largely indistinguishable, but they differ in their genetic and epigenetic profiles. Decisive genetic signposts of secondary glioblastoma are IDH1 mutations, which are absent in primary glioblastomas and which are associated with a hypermethylation phenotype. IDH1 mutations are the earliest detectable genetic alteration in precursor low-grade diffuse astrocytomas and in oligodendrogliomas, indicating that these tumors are derived from neural precursor cells that differ from those of primary glioblastomas. In this review, we summarize epidemiologic, clinical, histopathologic, genetic, and expression features of primary and secondary glioblastomas and the biologic consequences of IDH1 mutations. We conclude that this genetic alteration is a definitive diagnostic molecular marker of secondary glioblastomas and more reliable and objective than clinical criteria. Despite a similar histologic appearance, primary and secondary glioblastomas are distinct tumor entities that originate from different precursor cells and may require different therapeutic approaches.

Overweight, obesity, and cancer risk

Abstract: Over the past few decades the proportion of people with excess body weight has been increasing in both developed and less developed countries. About 50% of men and 35% of women in Europe are currently estimated to be overweight or obese. In addition to an increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes, the evidence summarised here shows that excess body weight is directly associated with risk of cancer at several organ sites, including colon, breast (in postmenopausal women), endometrium, oesophagus, and kidney. In part, these associations with cancer risk may be explained by alterations in the metabolism of endogenous hormones-including sex steroids, insulin, and insulin-like growth factors-which can lead to distortion of the normal balance between cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Avoidance of weight gain thus seems to be an important factor for cancer prevention.

Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in the United States

Abstract: Contemporary information on the fraction of cancers that potentially could be prevented is useful for priority setting in cancer prevention and control. Herein, the authors estimate the proportion and number of invasive cancer cases and deaths, overall (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers) and for 26 cancer types, in adults aged 30 years and older in the United States in 2014, that were attributable to major, potentially modifiable exposures (cigarette smoking; secondhand smoke; excess body weight; alcohol intake; consumption of red and processed meat; low consumption of fruits/vegetables, dietary fiber, and dietary calcium; physical inactivity; ultraviolet radiation; and 6 cancer-associated infections). The numbers of cancer cases were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute; the numbers of deaths were obtained from the CDC; risk factor prevalence estimates were obtained from nationally representative surveys; and associated relative risks of cancer were obtained from published, large-scale pooled analyses or meta-analyses. In the United States in 2014, an estimated 42.0% of all incident cancers (659,640 of 1570,975 cancers, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers) and 45.1% of cancer deaths (265,150 of 587,521 deaths) were attributable to evaluated risk factors. Cigarette smoking accounted for the highest proportion of cancer cases (19.0%; 298,970 cases) and deaths (28.8%; 169,180 deaths), followed by excess body weight (7.8% and 6.5%, respectively) and alcohol intake (5.6% and 4.0%, respectively). Lung cancer had the highest number of cancers (184,970 cases) and deaths (132,960 deaths) attributable to evaluated risk factors, followed by colorectal cancer (76,910 cases and 28,290 deaths). These results, however, may underestimate the overall proportion of cancers attributable to modifiable factors, because the impact of all established risk factors could not be quantified, and many likely modifiable risk factors are not yet firmly established as causal. Nevertheless, these findings underscore the vast potential for reducing cancer morbidity and mortality through broad and equitable implementation of known preventive measures. CA Cancer J Clin 2018;68:31-54. © 2017 American Cancer Society.