Smoking has been found to be associated with depression. Biologic hypotheses support causation in both directions. This study examined the association between cigarette smoking and a subsequent first depression. In 1990, 2,014 adults in Norway were interviewed about their lifestyle and mental health. A 2001 reinterview by trained interviewers defined the study cohort of 1,190 participants. The cases were those who experienced a first depression whose onset was estimated to occur during the follow-up period, based on retrospective assessment by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision). Cox regression was used to estimate the hazard rate of depression during follow-up. Alternative explanations for a direct causal influence from smoking on subsequent depression were assessed, and a sensitivity analysis was performed. The risk of depression was four times as high for heavy smokers compared with never smokers. A dose-response relation with an increasing hazard for past smokers and for an increasing number of cigarettes smoked per day for current smokers was found. Similarly, increasing smoking time was associated with increasing risk. Failure of other plausible alternatives to explain the observed association between smoking and depression might reflect a direct causal influence of smoking on depression.

The coordinated screening programme provides a low cost way of increasing the coverage of the female population, and consequently has reduced the rate of invasive cervical cancer.

The purpose of this study was to compare the detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA with detection of mRNA. The study included 4,136 women >30 years of age. E6/E7 mRNA expression from the carcinogenic HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45 was detected by the PreTect HPVProofer assay, whereas the presence of HPV DNA was detected by Gp5+/6+ consensus PCR followed by typespecific PCR. A total of 4.0% had an abnormal cytologic diagnosis, 3.0% were positive by PreTect HPV-Proofer, 4.4% by type-specific PCR, and 10.4% by consensus PCR. For detection of HPV in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), no significant difference was observed between PreTect HPV-Proofer and consensus PCR. For women with a cytologic normal, atypical squamous cell of uncertain significance, and low-grade SIL diagnosis, the detection rate of HPV was significantly higher by Gp5+/6+ consensus PCR (P < 0.005) than by PreTect HPV-Proofer. Histology confirmed 14 of 23 cytologic HSIL as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade >2. Of these women, PreTect HPV-Proofer and type-specific PCR detected 12, whereas consensus PCR detected 13. In conclusion, for HSIL, detection of E6/E7 transcripts from HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45 are present to the same degree as DNA detected by consensus PCR. Equally important, only a small proportion of the HPV DNA -positive women with a normal, atypical squamous cell of uncertain significance or low-grade SIL diagnosis had a detectable mRNA expression. HPV E6/E7 mRNA detection by PreTect HPV-Proofer represents a new promising test as an adjunct to cytology.

BackgroundBreast-conserving therapy (BCT) and mastectomy (MTX) has been considered to have a similar long-time survival. However, better survival in women undergoing BCT compared with MTX is found in two recent register studies from the United States. The purpose of this study was to compare survival after BCT and MTX for women with early-stage breast cancer in Norway.MethodsWomen with invasive, early-stage breast cancer (1998–2008) where BCT and MTX were considered as equally beneficial treatments were included for a total of 13,015 women. Surgery was divided in two main cohorts (primary BCT, primary MTX) and five subcohorts. Analyses were stratified into T1N0M0, T2N0M0, T1N1M0, T2N1M0, and age groups (<50, 50–69, ≥70). Overall survival and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) were calculated in life tables, hazard ratios by Cox regression, and sensitivity analyses.ResultsFive-year BCSS for women who underwent primary BCT or primary MTX was 97 and 88 %, respectively. Women who underwent primary MTX had a hazard ratio of 1.64 (95 % confidence interval 1.43–1.88) for breast cancer death compared with women who underwent primary BCT after adjusting for the year of diagnosis, age at diagnosis, stage, histology, and grade.ConclusionsSurvival was better or equal after breast-conserving therapy than mastectomy in all early stages, surgical subcohorts, and age groups. This advantage could not only be attributed to differences in tumor biology.