Background: Factors related to improving outcomes in breast cancer survivors are of increasing public health significance. We examined postdiagnosis weight change in relation to mortality risk in a cohort of breast cancer survivors. Methods: We analyzed data from a cohort of 3,993 women with ages 20 to 79 years living in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Wisconsin with invasive nonmetastatic breast cancers diagnosed in 1988 to 1999 identified through state registries. Participants completed a structured telephone interview 1 to 2 years after diagnosis and returned a mailed follow-up questionnaire in 1998 to 2001 that addressed postdiagnosis weight and other factors. Vital status information was obtained from the National Death Index through December 2005. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated from Cox proportional hazards models and adjusted for prediagnosis weight, age, stage, smoking, physical activity, and other important covariates.

The authors investigated secular trends in age at menarche, age at menopause, and reproductive life span within a population-based cohort of US women. Study subjects were 22,774 women selected randomly as controls for a case-control study. Eligible controls were residents of Wisconsin, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire born between 1910 and 1969. Subjects completed telephone interviews in 1988-2001 and answered questions regarding reproductive and lifestyle factors. Birth cohorts were created using 5- and 10-year periods, and statistical comparisons were performed with analysis of variance. The mean age at menarche decreased by approximately 6 months for those born between 1910 and 1949 (13.1 vs. 12.7 years; p < 0.001), with a subsequent increase to 13.0 years among women born between 1960 and 1969 (p < 0.001). Among naturally menopausal women aged 60 or more years who reported never use of postmenopausal hormone therapy, the authors observed a 17-month increase in the mean age at menopause for those born between 1915 and 1939 (49.1 vs. 50.5 years; p = 0.001) after adjustment for potential confounders. They also observed an increase in the average number of reproductive years (subtracting age at menarche from age at natural menopause), from 36.1 years among women born between 1915 and 1919 to 37.7 years among the 1935-1939 cohort (p = 0.0001). These findings have implications for women's lifetime exposure to circulating endogenous hormones.

A B S T R A C T PurposeContralateral breast cancer (CBC) is the most frequent new malignancy among women diagnosed with a first breast cancer. Although temporal trends for first breast cancers have been well studied, trends for CBC are not so well established. Patients and MethodsWe examined temporal trends in CBC incidence using US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1975 to 2006). Data were stratified by estrogen receptor (ER) status of the first breast cancer for the available time period (1990ϩ). We estimated the annual percent change (EAPC) in CBC rates using Poisson regression models adjusted for the age at and time since first breast cancer diagnosis. ResultsBefore 1985, CBC incidence rates were stable (EAPC, 0.27% per year; 95% CI, Ϫ0.4 to 0.9), after which they declined with an EAPC of Ϫ3.07% per year (95% CI, Ϫ3.5 to Ϫ2.7). From 1990 forward, the declines were restricted to CBC after an ER-positive cancer (EAPC, Ϫ3.18%; 95% CI, Ϫ4.2 to Ϫ2.2) with no clear decreases after an ER-negative cancer. Estimated current age-specific CBC rates (per 100/year) after an ER-positive first cancer were: 0.45 for first cancers diagnosed before age 30 years and 0.25 to 0.37 for age 30 years or older. Rates after an ER-negative cancer were higher: 1.26 before age 30 years, 0.85 for age 30 to 35 years, and 0.45 to 0.65 for age 40 or older. ConclusionResults show a favorable decrease of 3% per year for CBC incidence in the United States since 1985. This overall trend was driven by declining CBC rates after an ER-positive cancer, possibly because of the widespread usage of adjuvant hormone therapies, after the results of the Nolvadex Adjuvant Trial Organisation were published in 1983, and/or other adjuvant treatments. Oncol 29:1564Oncol 29: -1569 J Clin