No studies so far have prospectively examined whether circulating immune cells in healthy individuals determines pancreatic cancer risk. Using qPCR assays of DNA methylation, Katzke and colleagues measured relative immune cell counts in stored blood from EPIC cohort participants. Higher relative counts of FOXP3+-regulatory and lower proportion of CD8+-cytotoxic T-cells were associated with pancreatic cancer risk diagnosed within first five years of follow-up. Whether immune cell composition is associated to pancreatic cancer risk, or rather with relatively late-stage tumor development, remains unclear. If further epidemiologic studies confirm findings, this might open up novel avenues for cancer prevention by optimizing individuals’ immune defense.

Self-reported information may not accurately capture smoking exposure. Yu and colleagues aimed to evaluate whether smoking-associated DNA methylation markers improve urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) risk prediction. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess associations between blood-based methylation and UCC risk using two matched case-control...

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