(Press-News.org) A study that used stored blood samples from U.S. Air Force personnel who conducted aerial herbicide spray missions of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war found a more than 2-fold increased risk of the precursor to multiple myeloma known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology.
While the cause of MGUS and multiple myeloma (plasma cell cancer) remains largely unclear, studies have reported an elevated risk of multiple myeloma among farmers and other agricultural workers and pesticides have been thought to be the basis for these associations, according to study background.
Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and coauthors examined the association between MGUS and exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War in a study sample of 958 male veterans, including 479 Operation Ranch Hand veterans who were involved in aerial herbicide spray missions and 479 comparison veterans who were not.
The study found the overall prevalence of MGUS was 7.1 percent in the Operation Ranch Hand veterans and 3.1 percent in the comparison veterans, which translates to a 2.4-fold increased risk for MGUS in Operation Ranch Hand veterans.
The authors noted limitations to their study, including a lack of women in the study group and the potential for unknown confounding factors such as family medical history and civilian occupation.
"Our findings of increased MGUS risk among Ranch Hand veterans support an association between Agent Orange exposure and multiple myeloma," the study concludes.
(JAMA Oncol. Published online September 3, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.2938. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editor's Note: An author made conflict of interest disclosures and study funding/support was detailed. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Editorial: Association of Agent Orange with Plasma Cell Disorder
In a related editorial, Niklhil C. Munshi, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, writes: "The study by Landgren et al has brought clarity to the risk of AO [Agent Orange] exposure and plasma cell disorder. It also highlights the importance of tissue banking that allows investigation of a number of unanswered questions using modern methods. The emphasis now is to store samples from almost every major study with correlative science in mind, and this is essential if we are to understand disease biology, mechanism of response and resistance to therapy in the era of targeted therapy and precision medicine."
(JAMA Oncol. Published online September 3, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.3015. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)
Editor's Note: This work was supported in part by grants from the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
INFORMATION:
Media Advisory: To contact corresponding author Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., call Rebecca Williams at 646-227-3318 or email williamr@mskcc.org. To contact corresponding editorial author Nikhil C. Munshi, M.D., call Anne Doerr at 617-632-5665 or email anne_doerr@dfci.harvard.edu.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The technology behind 3-D printing is growing more and more common, but the ability to create designs for it is not. Any but the simplest designs require expertise with computer-aided design (CAD) applications, and even for the experts, the design process is immensely time consuming.
Researchers at MIT and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel aim to change that, with a new system that automatically turns CAD files into visual models that users can modify in real time, simply by moving virtual sliders on a Web page. Once the design meets ...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 3, 2015) - In the breast, cancer stem cells and normal stem cells can arise from different cell types but tap into distinct yet related stem cell programs, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. The differences between these stem cell programs may be significant enough to be exploited by future therapeutics.
Deadly tumor-initiating cells seed metastases throughout the body and cause relapses in patients. Whether these tumor-initiating cells can also be referred to as stem cells, specifically, cancer stem cells, has been up for debate. ...
A brief series of classes to help first-time parents better support each other through the often stressful transition to parenthood has a positive effect on birth outcomes as well, according to health researchers.
A decade ago Mark Feinberg, research professor at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, Penn State, developed Family Foundations, a series of classes for expectant parents. In two research trials, the program was shown to improve the way parents support each other -- to reduce parental stress, depression and anxiety; ...
AUSTIN, Texas -- Evidence from the tropical lowlands of Central America reveals how Maya activity more than 2,000 years ago not only contributed to the decline of their environment but continues to influence today's environmental conditions, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.
Synthesizing old and new data, researchers were the first to show the full extent of the "Mayacene" as a microcosm of the early anthropocene -- a period when human activity began greatly affecting environmental conditions.
"Most popular sources talk about the anthropocene ...
In some patients, aggressive cancers can become resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers identified a pathway that causes the resistance and a new therapeutic drug that targets this pathway.
"It was previously known that RAF (a family of proteins that regulate cellular signaling) governs resistance to therapies. We discovered an undescribed role for RAF and learned precisely how it occurs in a broad range of cancers," said lead author ...
PHILADELPHIA -- Acupuncture may be a viable treatment for women experiencing hot flashes as a result of estrogen-targeting therapies to treat breast cancer, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Hot flashes are particularly severe and frequent in breast cancer survivors, but current FDA-approved remedies for these unpleasant episodes, such as hormone replacement therapies are off-limits to breast cancer survivors because they include estrogen. The results of the study are published this week in the ...
Montreal, September 3, 2015 -- Sleep matters for kids, especially when they are stressed. A new study led by researchers Jinshia Ly, Jennifer J. McGrath and Jean-Philippe Gouin from Concordia University's Centre for Clinical Research in Health and the PERFORM Centre shows that poor sleep might explain how stress impacts health in kids.
A good night's sleep
Getting a good night's sleep might buffer the impact of stress on kids' cortisol level, which is a hormone produced in the adrenal gland to regulate the body's cardiovascular, metabolic and immune systems. While short-term ...
Cool. Calm. And oh, so calculated. That's how a chimpanzee living in the Royal Burgers' Zoo in the Netherlands set out to swat an aerial drone that was filming her group. In an article in the journal Primates published by Springer, Jan van Hooff and Bas Lukkenaar explain it as yet another example of chimpanzees' make-do attitude to using whatever is on hand as tools.
The incident happened earlier this year, on 10 April, when a Dutch television crew was filming at the zoo in Arnhem. The idea was to use a drone to film the chimpanzees in their compound from different close-up ...
Amsterdam, September 3, 2015 - 3D imaging of a mummified kestrel that died due to forced overeating provides evidence that the ancient Egyptians bred birds of prey as offerings for the gods, according to a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The digital CT imaging revealed that the kestrel was force-fed its last meal - a mouse - suggesting it was kept in captivity.
This is the first evidence to point to mass breeding of raptors as offerings to gods. The researchers behind the study, from the American University in Cairo, Stellenbosch University ...
Amsterdam, September 3, 2015 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has announced that its Reviewer Recognition platform has launched a new functionality which enables reviewers to list their entire review history, including their reviews for non-Elsevier journals, in one place online. It also allows them to share their Reviewer Page publically - increasing visibility and recognition of their work.
Through the Reviewer Recognition platform, Elsevier reviewers already have access to a personal review ...
