It is hypothesized that insulin resistance and related metabolic factors may influence breast cancer risk, however the epidemiological evidence remains inconclusive. We conducted a case-control study nested in a prospective cohort in Northern Sweden, to clarify the associations of body mass index (BMI), leptin, adiponectin, C-peptide, and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) with breast cancer risk. We al

Background: Sex hormones in serum have been hypothesized to influence the risk of prostate cancer. We performed a collaborative analysis of the existing worldwide epidemiologic data to examine these associations in a uniform manner and to provide more precise estimates of risks. Methods: Data on serum concentrations of sex hormones from 18 prospective studies that included 3886 men with incident p

Objective: To examine the relation of well-known factors of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) as well as related circulating factors, with risk of colorectal cancer. Methods: We performed a case control study of 306 colorectal cancer cases and 595 matched controls nested in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort. Levels of C-peptide, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), leptin and adiponectin were mea

BACKGROUND. Androgens have been implicated in prostate tumorigenesis, but prospective studies have overall reported no association between circulating levels of androgens and risk of prostate cancer. However, some recent studies have shown that a high level of testosterone increase the risk of non-aggressive tumors but is associated with a decreased risk of aggressive tumors. METHODS. We prospecti

Factors related to insulin resistance have been implicated in prostate cancer development, however, few analytical studies support such an association. We performed a case control study on 392 prostate cancer cases and 392 matched controls nested in a prospective cohort in Northern Sweden. Plasma concentrations of C-peptide, leptin, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting and post-load glucose we

Excess weight in early life is believed to increase susceptibility to obesity, and in support of such theory, excess weight and fast weight gain in early childhood have been related to overweight later in life. The aim of this study was to review the literature on body size and growth in 0- to 4-year-old children and the association with body size at age 5-13 years. In total, 43 observational stud

Background: Change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure could be due to both shifts in the entire distribution of blood pressure (representing the combined effects of public health interventions and secular trends) and changes in its high-blood-pressure tail (representing successful clinical interventions to control blood pressure in the hypertensive population). Our aim was to quantify the

Background Underweight and severe and morbid obesity are associated with highly elevated risks of adverse health outcomes. We estimated trends in mean body-mass index (BMI), which characterises its population distribution, and in the prevalences of a complete set of BMI categories for adults in all countries. Methods We analysed, with use of a consistent protocol, population-based studies that ha

A novel approach is developed for predicting body trajectories for cancer progression, where conditional probabilities of clinical data are modeled using Hidden Markov Model techniques. Basically, each potential body site is encoded by an N-letter code, and a disease trajectory is described in terms of a string of letters. Patient data base records are then represented by such strings with differe

Some authors argue that we have a moral obligation to leave Mars the way it is, even if it does not harbour any life. This claim is usually based on an assumption that Mars has intrinsic value. The problem with this concept is that different authors use it differently. In this chapter, I investigate different ways in which an uninhabited Mars is said to have intrinsic value. First, I investigate w