House Moser (crowground9)

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variation is associated with risk of cancers, particularly those with infectious etiology or hematopoietic origin, given its role in immune presentation. Previous studies focused primarily on HLA allele/haplotype-specific associations. To answer whether associations are driven by HLA class I (essential for T-cell cytotoxicity) or class II (important for T-cell helper responses) genes, we analyzed GWAS from 24 case-control studies and consortia comprising 27 cancers (totaling >71,000 individuals). Associations for most cancers with infectious etiology or of hematopoietic origin were driven by multiple HLA regions, suggesting that both cytotoxic and helper T-cell responses are important. Notable exceptions were observed for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, an EBV-associated cancer, and CLL/SLL forms of non-Hodgkin lymphomas; these cancers were associated with HLA class I region only and HLA class II region only, implying the importance of cytotoxic T-cell responses for the former and CD4+ T-cell helper responses for the latter. Our findings suggest that increased understanding of the pattern of HLA associations for individual cancers could lead to better insights into specific mechanisms involved in cancer pathogenesis. SIGNIFICANCE GWAS of >71,000 individuals across 27 cancer types suggest that patterns of HLA Class I and Class II associations may provide etiologic insights for cancer.It is unclear whether racial/ethnic disparities in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) mortality remain after accounting for clinical characteristics, treatment, and access-to-care-related factors. In this study, women with a primary diagnosis of TNBC during 2010-2014 were identified from the National Cancer Database. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for 3- and 5-year all-cause mortality associated with race/ethnicity were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models with stepwise adjustments for age, clinical characteristics, treatment, and access-to-care-related factors. Of 78,708 patients, non-Hispanic (NH) black women had the lowest 3-year overall survival rates (79.4%), followed by NH-whites (83.1%), Hispanics (86.0%), and Asians (87.1%). After adjustment for clinical characteristics, NH-blacks had a 12% higher risk of dying 3 years post-diagnosis (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.17), whereas Hispanics and Asians had a 24% (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.70-0.83) and 17% (HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73-0.94) lower risk than their NH-white counterparts. The black-white disparity became non-significant after combined adjustment for treatment and access-to-care-related factors (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.99-1.09), whereas the white-Hispanic and white-Asian differences remained. Stratified analyses revealed that among women aged less than or equal to 50 with stage III cancer, the elevated risk among NH-blacks persisted (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.04-1.39) after full adjustments. Similar results were seen for 5-year mortality. Overall, clinical characteristics, treatment, and access-to-care-related factors accounted for most of the white-black differences in all-cause mortality of TNBC but explained little about Hispanic- and Asian-white differences. SIGNIFICANCE These findings highlight the need for equal healthcare to mitigate the black-white disparity and for investigations of contributors beyond healthcare for lower mortality among Asians and Hispanics. Understanding patterns of parental tobacco use and their association with child exposure can help us target interventions more appropriately. We aimed to examine the association between parental smoking practices and cotinine levels of hospitalized children. This is a secondary analysis of data collected from parents of hospitalized children, recruited for a cessation intervention randomized controlled trial. Smoking parents were identified by using a medical record screening question. Parent-reported demographics and smoking habits were compared to child u