Dataset Information

An investigation of the apparent breast cancer epidemic in France: screening and incidence trends in birth cohorts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Official descriptive data from France showed a strong increase in breast-cancer incidence between 1980 to 2005 without a corresponding change in breast-cancer mortality. This study quantifies the part of incidence increase due to secular changes in risk factor exposure and in overdiagnosis due to organised or opportunistic screening. Overdiagnosis was defined as non progressive tumours diagnosed as cancer at histology or progressive cancer that would remain asymptomatic until time of death for another cause.

Methods

Comparison between age-matched cohorts from 1980 to 2005. All women residing in France and born 1911-1915, 1926-1930 and 1941-1945 are included. Sources are official data sets and published French reports on screening by mammography, age and time specific breast-cancer incidence and mortality, hormone replacement therapy, alcohol and obesity. Outcome measures include breast-cancer incidence differences adjusted for changes in risk factor distributions between pairs of age-matched cohorts who had experienced different levels of screening intensity.

Results

There was an 8-fold increase in the number of mammography machines operating in France between 1980 and 2000. Opportunistic and organised screening increased over time. In comparison to age-matched cohorts born 15 years earlier, recent cohorts had adjusted incidence proportion over 11 years that were 76% higher [95% confidence limits (CL) 67%, 85%] for women aged 50 to 64 years and 23% higher [95% CL 15%, 31%] for women aged 65 to 79 years. Given that mortality did not change correspondingly, this increase in adjusted 11 year incidence proportion was considered as an estimate of overdiagnosis.

Conclusions

Breast cancer may be overdiagnosed because screening increases diagnosis of slowly progressing non-life threatening cancer and increases misdiagnosis among women without progressive cancer. We suggest that these effects could largely explain the reported "epidemic" of breast cancer in France. Better predictive classification of tumours is needed in order to avoid unnecessary cancer diagnoses and subsequent procedures.

SUBMITTER: Junod B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3188513 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

An investigation of the apparent breast cancer epidemic in France: screening and incidence trends in birth cohorts.

Junod Bernard B Zahl Per-Henrik PH Kaplan Robert M RM Olsen Jørn J Greenland Sander S

BMC cancer 20110921

<h4>Background</h4>Official descriptive data from France showed a strong increase in breast-cancer incidence between 1980 to 2005 without a corresponding change in breast-cancer mortality. This study quantifies the part of incidence increase due to secular changes in risk factor exposure and in overdiagnosis due to organised or opportunistic screening. Overdiagnosis was defined as non progressive tumours diagnosed as cancer at histology or progressive cancer that would remain asymptomatic until ...[more]

PMID: 21936933

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Project description:ImportanceDespite annually adapted recommendations to prevent malaria in travelers to endemic areas, France is still the industrialized country reporting the highest number of imported cases of malaria. Better understanding of the epidemiologic context and evolution during the past 2 decades may help to define a better preventive strategy.ObjectiveTo study epidemiologic trends of imported cases of malaria in travelers in geographic territories of France on the European continent (metropolitan France) from 1996 through 2016 to potentially explain the persistence of high imported malaria incidence despite national preventive measures.Design, setting, and participantsIn a cross-sectional study, between January 1 and May 31, 2018, data were extracted from the French National Reference Center of Malaria Surveillance. Trends in patients with imported malaria in association with age, sex, ethnicity, purpose of travel, malaria species, severity of illness, case mortality rate, and endemic countries visited were analyzed in 43 333 malaria cases among civilian travelers living in metropolitan France.Main outcomes and measuresEvolution of the main epidemiologic characteristics of patients with imported malaria.ResultsAmong the 43 333 patients with imported malaria in civilian travelers included in the study, 24 949 were male (62.4%), and 8549 were younger than 18 years (19.9%). A total of 28 658 malaria cases (71.5%) were among African individuals, and 10 618 cases (26.5%) among European individuals. From 1996 through 2016, the number of confirmed malaria cases peaked at 3400 cases in 2000, then declined to 1824 cases in 2005 and stabilized thereafter to approximately 1720 malaria cases per year. A total of 37 065 cases (85.5%) were due to Plasmodium falciparum. The proportion of malaria cases among African individuals rose from 53.5% in 1996 to 83.4% in 2016, and the most frequent motivation for traveling was visiting friends and relatives (25 329 [77.1%]; P < .001). Despite an increase in the proportion of severe cases, which rose from 131 cases (8.9%) in 1996 to 279 cases (16.7%) in 2016 (P < .001), mortality remained stable, being approximately 0.4% during the study period.Conclusions and relevanceBeyond the apparent stability of the number of imported malaria cases in France, significant changes appear to have occurred among the population who developed malaria infection following travel in endemic areas. These changes may imply that adaptation of the preventive strategy is needed to reduce the burden of the disease among travelers.

Project description:Background:Two genetic variants in apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) are associated with increased risk of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis as well as other glomerular phenotypes. These risk variants are common in individuals of African ancestry but absent in other racial groups. Yet, the majority of individuals with two APOL1 risk alleles [high-risk (HR) genotype] do not have renal disease. It is critical to identify environmental and secondary genetic influences that, when combined with these alleles, lead to kidney disease. In a recent study of black children with glomerular disease enrolled in the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network (NEPTUNE) and Chronic Kidney Disease in Children Study (n = 104), we found that subjects with an HR genotype had a 4.6-fold increase in the odds of preterm birth as compared to those with a low risk (LR) genotype [odds ratio 4.6 (CI 1.4-15.5)]. There are known racial disparities in preterm birth, which itself is a known risk factor for chronic kidney disease and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Thus, we questioned whether an HR APOL1 genotype is associated with prematurity in the general African American population. Methods:We analyzed two publically available genetic datasets of preterm birth in African Americans, including 867 infants and 519 mothers from the Gene Environment Association Studies (GENEVA) study of preterm delivery and 960 mothers from the Boston Medical Center genome-wide association study of preterm birth. We performed multivariable analyses testing for association between HR APOL1 and birth outcomes. Results:In both studies, there was no association between HR APOL1 in mothers and prematurity, gestational age or birthweight. Additionally, in the GENEVA study, we saw no association between infant HR APOL1 and prematurity, gestational age or birthweight. Conclusion:From these data, we conclude that the previously observed association between HR APOL1 and prematurity is specific to those with glomerular disease, suggesting prematurity may act as an additional risk factor in APOL1-associated renal disease.

Dataset Information

An investigation of the apparent breast cancer epidemic in France: screening and incidence trends in birth cohorts.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

An investigation of the apparent breast cancer epidemic in France: screening and incidence trends in birth cohorts.

Similar Datasets

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