Search

Scholarly Works (5 results)

Sort By:

Article
Peer Reviewed

Correlation between cancer incidences and Google searches in the United States

Dermatology Online Journal, Volume 22, Issue 9 (2016)

IntroductionDespite being highly prevalent, keratinocyte carcinomas (basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas lack nationwide registries. Internet search data has emerged as a new method to evaluate previously difficult to quantify public health outcomes and may be useful in keratinocyte carcinoma research.

ObjectiveWe aimed to evaluate whether Google search density correlated with known incidences of common cancers in the United States.

MethodsWe used the Center for Disease Control’s National Program of Cancer Registries ageTadjusted cancer incidences (2008T2012 . We collected Google search data, normalized for total search volume, using Google trends (google.com/trends . We collected data on the ten most incident cancers in the United States: lung, breast, colon, prostate, melanoma, endometrial, bladder, thyroid, NonTHodgkin’s lymphoma, kidney/renal pelvis. We utilized Pearson’s correlation coefficient to evaluate the relationship between known cancer incidence and Google search density by state.

ResultsFour cancers (endometrial, bladder, thyroid, kidney/renal pelvis had insufficient Google search quantity among individual states to be evaluated. Lung cancer (R2=0.70, p<0.001 , colon cancer (R2=0.60, p<0.001 , melanoma (R2=0.42, p=0.002 , and NonTHodgkin’s lymphoma (R2=0.47, p=0.006 had statistically significant correlations between actual incidences and Google searches. Breast and prostate cancer incidences were not correlated (p>0.05 .

DiscussionFour of the six highly incident cancers evaluated had statistically significant correlations between known incidence and Google search density. Internet search data may be a novel tool to estimate geographical incidence and prevalence of disease. This methodology may be particularly useful for keratinocyte carcinomas, which currently lack nationwide registries

Cover page: Correlation between cancer incidences and Google searches in the United States

Creative Commons 'BY-NC-ND' version 4.0 license

Article
Peer Reviewed

Association of Endocrine Therapy and Dementia in Women with Breast Cancer.

LBL Publications (2021)

Purpose

Prior studies have reported differing results regarding the association between endocrine therapy (ET) in the treatment of breast cancer and dementia risk. However, existing findings may be limited by common sources of bias and confounding. Here we investigate the association of ET utilized in the definitive setting to treat non-metastatic breast cancer with dementia risk accounting for multiple potential sources of bias and confounding.

Patients and methods

We conducted a retrospective study in SEER-Medicare of women aged ≥ 66 years with non-metastatic breast cancer. We examined the risk of all-cause dementia among ET users versus non-ET users using multivariable regression models, accounting for the competing risk of death, and using a start of the follow-up period as 12-months following breast cancer diagnosis for both groups to avoid immortal time bias.

Results

Among 25,777 individuals there were 2,869 incident dementia cases. We found a statistically significantly decreased risk of any dementia among ET users in unadjusted and adjusted models that completely attenuated when accounting for the competing risk of death (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.90-1.07).

Conclusion

When accounting for common sources of bias and confounding we did not find evidence to support an association between ET in the definitive treatment of non-metastatic breast cancer and dementia risk. These results suggest that ET may not be associated with dementia risk.

Cover page: Association of Endocrine Therapy and Dementia in Women with Breast Cancer.

Article
Peer Reviewed

Association of clonal hematopoiesis mutations with clinical outcomes: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

LBL Publications (2022)

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) mutations are common among individuals without known hematologic disease. CH mutations have been associated with numerous adverse clinical outcomes across many different studies. We systematically reviewed the available literature for clinical outcomes associated with CH mutations in patients without hematologic disease. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus for eligible studies. Three investigators independently extracted the data, and each study was verified by a second author. Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We identified 32 studies with 56 cohorts that examine the association between CH mutations and clinical outcomes. We conducted meta-analyses comparing outcomes among individuals with and without detectable CH mutations. We conducted meta-analyses for cardiovascular diseases (nine studies; HR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.26-2.07, p = .0002), hematologic malignancies (seven studies; HR = 5.59, 95% CI = 3.31-9.45, p < .0001), therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (four studies; HR = 7.55, 95% CI = 4.3-13.57, p < .001), and death (nine studies; HR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.2-1.5, p < .0001). The cardiovascular disease analysis was further stratified by variant allele fraction (VAF) and gene, which showed a statistically significant association only with a VAF of ≥ 10% (HR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.24-1.62, p < .0001), as well as statistically significant associations for each gene examined with the largest magnitude of effect found for CH mutations in JAK2 (HR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.84-6.68, p < .0001). Analysis of the association of CH mutations with hematologic malignancy demonstrated a numeric stepwise increase in risk with increasing VAF thresholds. This analysis strongly supports the association of CH mutations with a clinically meaningful increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes among individuals without hematologic disease, particularly with increasing VAF thresholds.

Cover page: Association of clonal hematopoiesis mutations with clinical outcomes: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Article
Peer Reviewed

The Risk of Melanoma in Airline Pilots and Cabin Crew: A Meta-analysis

UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2015)

Importance

Airline pilots and cabin crew are occupationally exposed to higher levels of cosmic and UV radiation than the general population, but their risk of developing melanoma is not yet established.

Objective

To assess the risk of melanoma in pilots and airline crew.

Data sources

PubMed (1966 to October 30, 2013), Web of Science (1898 to January 27, 2014), and Scopus (1823 to January 27, 2014).

Study selection

All studies were included that reported a standardized incidence ratio (SIR), standardized mortality ratio (SMR), or data on expected and observed cases of melanoma or death caused by melanoma that could be used to calculate an SIR or SMR in any flight-based occupation.

Data extraction and synthesis

Primary random-effect meta-analyses were used to summarize SIR and SMR for melanoma in any flight-based occupation. Heterogeneity was assessed using the χ2 test and I2 statistic. To assess the potential bias of small studies, we used funnel plots, the Begg rank correlation test, and the Egger weighted linear regression test.

Main outcomes and measures

Summary SIR and SMR of melanoma in pilots and cabin crew.

Results

Of the 3527 citations retrieved, 19 studies were included, with more than 266 431 participants. The overall summary SIR of participants in any flight-based occupation was 2.21 (95% CI, 1.76-2.77; P < .001; 14 records). The summary SIR for pilots was 2.22 (95% CI, 1.67-2.93; P = .001; 12 records). The summary SIR for cabin crew was 2.09 (95% CI, 1.67-2.62; P = .45; 2 records). The overall summary SMR of participants in any flight-based occupation was 1.42 (95% CI, 0.89-2.26; P = .002; 6 records). The summary SMR for pilots was 1.83 (95% CI, 1.27-2.63, P = .33; 4 records). The summary SMR for cabin crew was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.80-1.01; P = .97; 2 records).

Conclusions and relevance

Pilots and cabin crew have approximately twice the incidence of melanoma compared with the general population. Further research on mechanisms and optimal occupational protection is needed.

Cover page: The Risk of Melanoma in Airline Pilots and Cabin Crew: A Meta-analysis

Article
Peer Reviewed

A Social Media–Based Public Health Campaign to Reduce Indoor Tanning in High-Risk Populations

UC Davis Previously Published Works (2023)

Introduction

Indoor tanning beds cause more than 450,000 new skin cancers each year, yet their use remains common, with a global indoor tanning prevalence of 10.4%. Social media provides an opportunity for cost-effective, targeted public health messaging. We sought to direct Instagram users at high risk of indoor tanning to accurate health information about the risks of indoor tanning and to reduce indoor tanning bed use.

Methods

We disseminated a public health campaign on Instagram on April 6-27, 2022 with 34 video and still-image advertisements. We had 2 target audiences at high risk of indoor tanning: women aged 18-30 years in Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, or Tennessee interested in indoor tanning and men aged 18-45 years in California interested in indoor tanning. To evaluate the impact of the campaign, we tracked online metrics, including website visits, and conducted an interrupted time-series analysis of foot traffic data in our target states for all tanning salons documented on SafeGraph from January 1, 2018 to 3 months after the campaign.

Results

Our indoor tanning health information advertisements appeared on Instagram feeds 9.1 million times, reaching 1.06 million individuals. We received 7,004 views of our indoor tanning health information landing page (Average Time on Page of 56 seconds). We did not identify a significant impact on foot traffic data on tanning salons.

Conclusions

We show the successful use of social media advertising to direct high-risk groups to online health information about indoor tanning. Future research quantifying tanning visits before and after indoor tanning interventions is needed to guide future public health efforts.