In 2 meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, increased coffee intake was associated with slightly higher blood pressure. However, these trials were short in duration (5 cups/d). A dose-response meta-analysis showed an inverse "J-shaped" curve (P for quadratic term < 0.001) with hypertension risk increasing up to 3 cups/d (RR for comparison of 3 with 0 cups/d: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.97, 1.20) and decreasing with higher intakes (RR for comparison of 6 with 0 cups/d: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.89, 1.10). The results suggest that habitual coffee consumption of >3 cups/d was not associated with an increased risk of hypertension compared with <1 cup/d; however, a slightly elevated risk appeared to be associated with light-to-moderate consumption of 1 to 3 cups/d.

Epidemiologic studies suggest a protective effect of cruciferous vegetables on breast cancer. Sulforaphane (SFN), an active food component derived from crucifers, has been shown to be effective in breast cancer chemoprevention. This study evaluated the chemopreventive effect of SFN on selective biomarkers from blood and breast tissues. In a 2- to 8-week double-blinded, randomized controlled trial, 54 women with abnormal mammograms and scheduled for breast biopsy were randomized to consume a placebo or a glucoraphanin (GFN) supplement providing SFN (n = 27). Plasma and urinary SFN metabolites, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity, and tissue biomarkers (H3K18ac, H3K9ac, HDAC3, HDAC6, Ki-67, p21) were measured before and after the intervention in benign, ductal carcinoma in situ, or invasive ductal carcinoma breast tissues. Within the supplement group, Ki-67 (P = 0.003) and HDAC3 (P = 0.044) levels significantly decreased in benign tissue. Pre-to-postintervention changes in these biomarkers were not significantly different between treatment groups after multiple comparison adjustment. GFN supplementation was associated with a significant decrease in PBMC HDAC activity (P = 0.04). No significant associations were observed between SFN and examined tissue biomarkers when comparing treatment groups. This study provides evidence that GFN supplementation for a few weeks is safe but may not be sufficient for producing changes in breast tissue tumor biomarkers. Future studies employing larger sample sizes should evaluate alternative dosing and duration regimens to inform dietary SFN strategies in breast cancer chemoprevention. Cancer Prev Res; 8(12); 1184–91. ©2015 AACR.

To evaluate the performance of Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) in detecting undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes among U.S. adults by gender and race. This cross-sectional analysis included participants (aged ≥20 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2010. Sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the optimal cutoff points for identifying undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes were calculated for FINDRISC by gender and race/ethnicity. Among the 20,633 adults (≥20 years), 49.8% were women and 53.0% were non-Hispanic White. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes was 4.1% and 35.6%, respectively. FINDRISC was positively associated with the prevalence of diabetes (OR = 1.48 for 1 unit increase, p<0.001) and prediabetes (OR = 1.15 for 1 unit increase, p<0.001). The area under ROC for detecting undiagnosed diabetes was 0.75 for total population, 0.74 for men and 0.78 for women (p = 0.04); 0.76 for White, 0.76 for Black and 0.72 for Hispanics (p = 0.03 for White vs. Hispanics). The area under ROC for detecting prediabetes was 0.67 for total population, 0.66 for men and 0.70 for women (p<0.001); 0.68 for White, 0.67 for Black and 0.65 for Hispanics (p<0.001 for White vs. Hispanics). The optimal cutoff point was 10 (sensitivity = 0.75) for men and 12 (sensitivity = 0.72) for women for detecting undiagnosed diabetes; 9 (sensitivity = 0.61) for men and 10 (sensitivity = 0.69) for women for detecting prediabetes. FINDRISC is a simple and non-invasive screening tool to identify individuals at high risk for diabetes in the U.S. adults.

Previous studies suggest compounds such as sulforaphane (SFN) derived from cruciferous vegetables may prevent prostate cancer development and progression. This study evaluated the effect of broccoli sprout extract (BSE) supplementation on blood histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity, prostate RNA gene expression, and tissue biomarkers (histone H3 lysine 18 acetylation (H3K18ac), HDAC3, HDAC6, Ki67, and p21). A total of 98 men scheduled for prostate biopsy were allocated into either BSE (200 µmol daily) or a placebo in our double-blind, randomized controlled trial. We used nonparametric tests to evaluate the differences of blood HDAC activity and prostate tissue immunohistochemistry biomarkers between treatment groups. Further, we performed RNA-Seq analysis on the prostate biopsies and identified 40 differentially expressed genes correlated with BSE treatment, including downregulation of two genes previously implicated in prostate cancer development, AMACR and ARLNC1. Although urine and plasma SFN isothiocyanates and individual SFN metabolites were statistically higher in the treatment group, our results did not show a significant difference in HDAC activity or prostate tissue biomarkers. This study indicates BSE supplementation correlates with changes in gene expression but not with several other prostate cancer biomarkers. More research is required to fully understand the chemopreventive effects of BSE supplementation on prostate cancer.

TP53 gene is mutated in approximately 80% of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the prognostic significance of immunohistochemical (IHC)-detected p53 protein expression remains controversial in TNBC. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the association between IHC-detected p53 expression and the prognosis in a cohort of 278 patients with stage I-III triple-negative breast invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), who received surgery at the department of breast surgery in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from 2010–01 to 2012–12. We found a positive expression ratio of IHC-detected p53 in triple-negative breast IDC of 58.6% (163/278). Furthermore, levels of expression were significantly associated with vessel tumor emboli and higher histologic grade (P = .038, P = .043, respectively), with the highest expression level observed in G3 breast cancer (64.7%). Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that p53 expression indicated worse overall survival (OS) in the whole cohort (79.6% vs 89.6%, Log-rank test P = .025) as well as in stratified prognostic stage II patients (90.8% vs 100%, Log-rank test P = .027). The mortality risk of p53 expression patients was 2.22 times higher than that of p53 negative patients (HR: 2.222; 95%CI: 1.147–4.308). In addition, p53 expression was also associated with poor disease-free survival (DFS) (76.7% vs 86.8%, P = .020). Cox proportional hazard ratio model showed p53 expression was an independent risk factor for OS (P = .018) and DFS (P = .018) after controlling for tumor size, lymph node status, and vessel tumor emboli. Altogether, our data showed that IHC-detected p53 expression is a promising prognostic candidate for poor survival in triple-negative breast IDC patients. However, more studies are needed to determine if p53 may be applied to clinical practice as a biomarker and/or novel therapeutic target for TNBC.