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Whether expensive high-purity factor VIII concentrates are required to slow CD4 decline in HIV-infected haemophiliacs is controversial. We examined CD4 counts among such cases treated with intermediate-purity and high-purity factor VIII. 36 subjects treated with high-purity concentrate for 6 months or more had a smaller decline in CD4 than 72 matched controls on intermediate-purity concentrate (two-sided p = 0.08). In a more complex analysis with 226 subjects, CD4 counts declined 3% less per 6 months with high-purity material than with intermediate product (p = 0.04). Thus concentrate purity may affect rate of CD4 change.

Life-table analysis was used to estimate the cumulative risk of breast cancer to various ages for mothers and sisters of breast cancer patients in a population-based series. These cumulative risk estimates were then used to derive a probability of breast cancer diagnosis within each decade between ages 20 and 70 for mothers and sisters, according to age of diagnosis in the patient and whether the disease was unilateral or bilateral. Risks for relatives of premenopausal patients with unilateral disease were no higher than those for relatives of postmenopausal patients. Relatives of premenopausal patients with bilateral disease had higher risk than relatives of patients with unilateral disease, irrespective of age at diagnosis in those with unilateral disease. Sisters were at higher risk than were mothers.

A case-control study of 150 ovarian cancer patients under the age of 50 and individually matched controls was done to study the influence of fertility and oral contraceptive use on the risk of ovarian cancer. The risk decreased with increasing numbers of live births, with increasing numbers of incomplete pregnancies, and with the use of oral contraceptives. These three factors can be amalgamated into a single index of protection--"protected time"--by considering them all as periods of anovulation. The complement of protected time--viz., "ovulatory age", the period between menarche and diagnosis of ovarian cancer (or cessation of menses) minus "protected time"--was strongly related to risk of ovarian cancer. Other factors found to be associated with increased ovarian cancer risk were obesity, cervical polyps, and gallbladder disease. Women who had an "immediate" intolerance to oral contraceptive use had a fourfold increased risk of ovarian cancer. 7 patients, but no controls, could recall a family history of ovarian cancer.A case-control study of 150 ovarian cancer patients under the age of 50 and individually matched controls was done to study the influence of fertility and (OC) oral contraceptive use on the risk of ovarian cancer. The risk decreased with increasing numbers of live births, with increasing numbers of incomplete pregnancies, and with the use of OCs. These 3 factors can be amalgamated into a single index of protection--"protected time"--by considering them all as periods of anovulation. The complement of protected time--viz., "ovulatory age," the period between menarche and diagnosis of ovarian cancer (or cessation of menses) minus "protected time"--was strongly related to risk of ovarian cancer. Other factors found to be associated with increased ovarian cancer risk were obesity, cervical polyps, and gallbladder disease. Women who had an immediate intolerance to OC use had a 4-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer. 7 patients, but no controls, could recall a family history of ovarian cancer.

To investigate the possibility that Hodgkin's disease (H.D.) may be transmitted from person to person, a case-control study was conducted among 87 of the 97 H.D. patients diagnosed under the age of 40 years in the period 1962-71, resident at the time of diagnosis in a defined area around Oxford. For each of the 87 H.D. patients a matched control patient was selected with a diagnosis other than that of a chronic or malignant disease. H.D. patients and controls were interviewed to determine their places of schooling and work and attempts were made to link pairs of patients who had attended the same school or work place at the same time. The findings do not support the hypothesis that H.D. patients may pass on the disease to others. Among the H.D. patients, links between 40 pairs were established, compared with 40-75 links expected, based upon the experience of all 174 persons studied. The only finding which was statistically significant (p approximately 0-04) arose when H.D. patients were considered to be "susceptible" from 10 to 5 years before diagnosis and "infective" from diagnosis to 2 years after diagnosis: 7 pairs of links were found against 2-75 expected. However, since 7 postulated periods of susceptibility and 9 postulated periods of infectivity were examined, this one "statistically significant" finding might easily have arisen by chance.