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In Brief
Varying Prevalence of HPV Types May Affect Effectiveness of Vaccine
The proportion of women who are infected with the high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types HPV16 and HPV18, for which vaccines are currently in development, varies by geographic region, which may make the vaccines more effective in Europe than in other parts of the world, according to a new study published online August 16 by The Lancet.
The prevalence of HPV infections, which cause cervical cancer, varies worldwide. To determine the distribution of HPV types in women from different countries, Gary M. Clifford, Ph.D., of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, and colleagues tested more than 15,000 women ages 15 to 74 from 11 countries (Argentina, Chile, Columbia, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Spain, Thailand, and Vietnam) for HPV.
HPV prevalence varied nearly 20-fold, from 1.4% in Spain to 25.6% in Nigeria. The highest rates of HPV infection were in sub-Saharan Africa, but these women were less likely to be infected with HPV16 and/or low-risk HPV types than European women.
Aspirin and Other NSAIDs May Be Associated With Lower Risk of Colorectal Cancer
Taking two or more pills of aspirin or another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) every week may be associated with a reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer; however, the pills may need to be taken for more than 10 years and their use may be associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, according to a new study in the August 24 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Earlier this summer, the Women's Health Study found in a randomized trial that regular low-dose aspirin use was not associated with either cancer risk overall or with colorectal cancer risk specifically. In this new study, which comes from data from the Nurses' Health Study, researchers also found that a similarly low dose of regular aspirin had no effect on colorectal cancer risk.
However, during the 20-year follow-up period of the Nurses' Health Study, Andrew T. Chan, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues report that taking two or more 325-mg pills of aspirin per week was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer compared with non–regular users. However, the risk reduction was only apparent in women who took the pills consistently for 10 or more years. It also appeared that the reduction in risk increased with higher regular doses of aspirin. The researchers noted that other NSAIDs appeared to have an association with colorectal cancer similar to that of aspirin.
"Our results, if proven causal, suggest that use of aspirin at the highest-dose category compared with no use of aspirin would prevent one to two cases of colorectal cancer with an excess of eight episodes of major gastrointestinal bleeding for every 10,000 person-years," the authors wrote.
Results of Phase I Oncology Studies Underreported
Only two-thirds of phase I studies submitted in abstract form to a major scientific oncology meeting were eventually reported in peer-reviewed journals, according to a new study published online August 22 in Cancer.
Abstracts submitted to scientific meetings may contain preliminary results that can subsequently change. Publication bias can arise if the final results of these studies are never published in peer-reviewed journals.
Luis H. Camacho, M.D., of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and colleagues identified all of the phase I studies that were submitted to the 1997 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. They determined if the studies had been subsequently published, and they surveyed study authors when studies were not published.
Of the 275 abstracts of phase I studies published in the meeting program, 54% (148) were selected to be presented at the meeting as posters or in oral presentations, with studies of novel agents (not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) more likely to be presented than those of non-novel agents. In the 7.5 years following the meeting, 67% of the studies were published in peer-reviewed journals—72% of abstracts selected for presentation and 62% of those not presented. The authors conclude that "the underreporting of the final results of phase I oncology studies remains a serious problem."
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