Newsletter - June 2009
A DIARY DATE
Collaborators’ meeting: Wednesday April 28th 2010
The next Collaborators’ meeting will be in Oxford on the above date. We will be sending out details at a later stage. We will be delighted to see you all again at the Richard Doll Building for the meeting.
Publications since the last newsletter in December 2007
The most recent publication was the ‘Moderate Alcohol Intake and Cancer Incidence in Women’ paper.
The conclusions were that low to moderate alcohol consumption in women increases the risk of certain cancers. For every additional drink regularly consumed per day, the increase in incidence up to age 75 years per 1000 for women in developed countries is estimated to be about 11 for breast cancer, 1 for cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, 1 for cancer of the rectum, and 0.7 each for cancers of the oesophagus, larynx and liver, giving a total excess of about 15 cancers per 1000 women up to age 75.
Allen NE, Beral V, Casabonne D, Kan SW, Reeves GK, Brown A, Green J. J Natl Cancer Inst 2009;101:296-305
There have been 12 other papers published since 2007. These include:
Reeves GK, Pirie K, Green J, Bull D, Beral V; Million Women Study Collaborators. Reproductive factors and specific histological types of breast cancer: prospective study and meta-analysis. Br J Cancer. 2009 Feb 10;100(3):538-44.
Liu B, Balkwill A, Roddam A, Brown A, Beral V on behalf of the Million Women study Collaborators. Separate and joint effects of alcohol and smoking on the risk of cirrhosis and gallbladder disease in middle-aged women. Am J Epidemiol 2009 Jan 15;169(2):153-60.
Reeves G, Pirie K, Beral V, Green J, Spencer E, Bull D for the Million Women Study Collaborators. Cancer incidence and mortality in relation to body mass index in the Million Women Study: cohort study. British Medical Journal; 2007 Dec 1;335(7630):1134.
All the papers are described, with a summary of each paper in the Publications section of this website.
The lilac follow-up questionnaire
The whole cohort of 1.3 million women were sent lilac follow-up questionnaires in 2006-7. Approximately 700K were returned. and 42% are now scanned and verified. This questionnaire will provide us with additional information that will inform us of any incident illnesses and diet/medication changes.
A copy of the lilac questionnaire is also available on our website in the questionnaires section.
The next follow-up questionnaire
This questionnaire is still on the drawing board and the colour has yet to be decided but it will be ready to go out in 2010. We are also investigating online questions to supplement postal questionnaires
Blood collection for genetics
With the help of participants, general practitioners and practice nurses throughout the UK we have collected almost 34,000 blood samples. This year we have also asked practice staff in selected areas of England to help with a body measurements validation exercise. This involves taking a participant’s height, weight, waist and hip measurements, in addition to collecting a blood sample. To date, we have received body measurements taken in general practices for over 2,300 women, which will be used to validate those reported on our questionnaires.
In addition, we have kept abreast of recent national changes to the government’s health research strategy by registering the study on the Clinical Research Network Portfolio of the National Institute for Health Research. This entitles the study to support from the NHS Service Support Fund for research activity undertaken in the NHS, which is now managed by the new Comprehensive Local Research Networks.
