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The main tool in drug safety monitoring, spontaneous reporting of adverse effects, is unlikely to detect delayed adverse drug effects including cancer. Hypothesis-free screening studies based on administrative data could improve ongoing drug safety monitoring. Using Danish health registries, we conducted a series of case–control studies by identifying individuals with incident cancer in Denmark from 2001 to 2018, matching each case with 10 population controls on age, sex, and calendar time. ORs were estimated using conditional logistic regression accounting for matching factors, educational level, and selected comorbidities. A total of 13,577 drug–cancer associations were examined for individual drugs and 8,996 for drug classes. We reviewed 274 drug–cancer pairs where an association with high use and a cumulative dose–response pattern was present. We classified 65 associations as not readily attributable to bias of which 20 were established as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the remaining 45 associations may warrant further study. The screening program identified drugs with known carcinogenic effects and highlighted a number of drugs that were not established as carcinogens and warrant further study. The effect estimates in this study should be interpreted cautiously and will need confirmation targeted epidemiologic and translational studies.Significance:This study provides a screening tool for drug carcinogenicity aimed at hypothesis generation and explorative purposes. As such, the study may help to identify drugs with unknown carcinogenic effects and, ultimately, improve drug safety as part of the ongoing safety monitoring of drugs.

Online Supplementary Material for publication containing additional information on covariate definitions (table S1 - S2) and statistical methods (methods S3) as well as the number of cases and examined drugs for each cancer under examination (table S4).

Background Low-dose aspirin irreversibly inhibits the cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-1 and COX-2, which catalyze the formation of prostaglandins and thromboxanes, inhibiting platelet aggregation. Platelets are thought to play a role in tumorigenesis. As such, aspirin may have a beneficial effect on breast cancer prognosis, but results to date are conflicting. Objectives To evaluate the association between aspirin use and breast cancer recurrence up to 23 years after primary diagnosis. Methods We included all women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer during 1996-2004 registered in the Danish Breast Cancer Group (DBCG) clinical database. We obtained information on aspirin prescriptions (>= 2 prescriptions filled between cancer diagnosis and the landmark) from the Danish National Prescription Registry. Information on early and late (>10 years after primary diagnosis) recurrence was obtained using the DBCG database (for recurrence within the first 10 years after diagnosis) and for late recurrence via a previously described and validated algorithm, drawing on data from the Danish National Patient Registry, the Danish Pathology Registry, the Danish Cancer Registry and a contralateral breast cancer database. We used Cox regression to compute crude and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) employing landmark analyses starting follow-up at years 5, 10, 15, and 20 after primary diagnosis. We adjusted for potential confounders including calendar year of diagnosis, menopausal status, comorbidities, estrogen receptor status, clinical stage, grade, surgery type, chemo- and endocrine therapy, diagnostic codes for alcoholism and obesity, as well as co-medications (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, statins, bisphosphonates, metformin, digoxin, hormone replacement therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and vitamin K antagonists). We followed patients until recurrence, death, second cancer, loss to follow-up, or 31 December 2018. Results Among 21,684 women with non-metastatic breast cancer, 4,902 experienced recurrence during 242,427 person-years of follow-up. Our landmark analyses showed a reduced hazard of recurrence in the 5-, 10-, and 15-year landmark cohorts (5-year landmark adjusted HR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.68, 0.94; 10-year landmark adjusted HR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.71, 1.00, 15-year landmark adjusted HR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.61, 1.14). The 20-year landmark analysis revealed an adjusted HR of 1.09 (95% CI = 0.49, 2.46). Conclusions The potential anti-cancer effect of aspirin appears most pronounced in the first 15 years after breast cancer diagnosis. Funding Elisabeth Solmunde is funded by the Danish Cancer Society (R320-A18464-B5768) and the Independent Research Fund Denmark (1149-00013B). This work was supported by grants to Deirdre Cronin-Fenton from the Danish Cancer Society (“Knæk Cancer” R147-A10100). Citation Format: Elisabeth Solmunde, Rikke N Pedersen, Mette Nørgaard, Lene Mellemkjær, Søren Friis, Bent Ejlertsen, Thomas P. Ahern, Deirdre Cronin-Fenton. Low-dose aspirin prescriptions and breast cancer recurrence: a Danish nationwide cohort study with up to 23 years of follow-up [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-03-02.

Background: A potential link between breast implants and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) has been suggested. Methods: We examined lymphoma occurrence in a nationwide cohort of 19,885 Danish women who underwent breast implant surgery during 1973–2010. Standardized incidence ratios (SIR), with 95% confidence intervals (CI), for ALCL and lymphoma overall associated with breast implantation were calculated. Results: During 179,246 person-years of follow-up, we observed 31 cases of lymphoma among cohort members. No cases of ALCL were identified. SIRs for ALCL and lymphoma overall were zero (95% CI, 0–10.3) and 1.20 (95% CI, 0.82–1.70), respectively. Conclusions: In our nationwide cohort study, we did not find an increased risk of lymphoma in general, or ALCL in particular, among Danish women who underwent breast implantation. However, our evaluation of ALCL risk was limited by the rarity of the disease. Impact: Our results do not support an association between breast implants and ALCL and are consistent with other studies on cancer risk and breast implants. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(11); 2126–9. ©2013 AACR.

Cancer incidence is rising and this global challenge is further exacerbated by resistance of advanced tumors to standard-of-care and emerging precision medicines. A promising approach to such unmet need for innovative and cost-effective cancer treatments is drug repurposing, exploitation of drugs already approved for other indications that show anticancer activity. Here we highlight the potential for repurposing disulfiram (Antabuse), an old alcohol-aversion drug that kills a broad range of cancer types in preclinical studies. Our nationwide population study reveals that patients who continued using disulfiram have a lower risk of death from cancer compared to those who stopped using the drug at their diagnosis. More importantly, we identify ditiocarb-copper complex as the metabolite of disulfiram responsible for anticancer effects, present methods to detect its preferential accumulation in tumors and candidate biomarkers of impact in cells and tissues. Finally, our functional and biophysical analyses reveal the long-thought molecular target: NPL4 adapter of the p97/VCP segregase essential for protein recycling involved in multiple stress-response cellular pathways. Citation Format: Martin Mistrik, Zdenek Skrott, Marian Hajduch, Søren Friis, Petr Dzubak, Jan Gursky, Dusana Majera, Tomas Ozdian, Jana Vaclavkova, Martina Michalova, Pavla Pouckova, Boris Cvek, Klaus Kaae Andersen, Jiři Bartek. Alcohol-aversion drug disulfiram targets cancer via p97 segregase adaptor NPL4 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-264.

Background: Inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDAC) have shown promise as targeted cancer therapy. Valproate, an older anticonvulsant, has been shown to possess HDAC inhibitory activity. We undertook this case-control study to clarify whether long-term users of valproate had a reduced cancer incidence. If so, it would support HDAC inhibition as a pharmacologic principle in chemoprevention. Methods: We identified 149,417 incident cancer cases in Denmark during the study period 2000 through 2005, and 597,668 age- and gender-matched controls. Data on history of cancer, past hospital admission diagnoses, and prescription history were obtained from the Danish Cancer Registry, the Danish National Patient Registry, and the Danish Prescription Registry. Primary exposure to valproate was defined as a cumulative dose of minimum 1,500 g within the past 5 years. Confounders were controlled by conditional logistic regression. Results: Among the cases and controls, 81 (0.05%) and 260 (0.04%), respectively, were long-term users of valproate. For cancer overall, the crude and adjusted odds ratios were 1.25 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.97-1.60] and 1.21 (95% CI, 0.95-1.56), respectively. Subgroup analyses revealed no dose or duration effect for overall cancer incidence, and no specific cancer site was found to be inversely associated with long-term use of valproate. For lung cancer, we found a positive but imprecise association (adjusted odds ratio, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.12-4.79). Conclusion: Long-term valproate use is not associated with a reduced cancer risk. Our study does not support HDAC inhibition as a pharmacologic principle for general chemoprevention. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(6):1714–9)

Background: The objective of this study is to assess the risk of second primary cancers following a first primary esophageal cancer as well as the risk of esophageal cancer as a second primary, following first primary cancers of other sites. Methods: The present investigation is a multicenter study of 13 population-based cancer registries in Europe, Australia, Canada, and Singapore. To assess excess occurrence of second cancers after esophageal cancers, we calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIR) by dividing the observed numbers of second cancers by the expected number of cancers calculated from the accumulated person-years and the age-, sex-, calendar period-, and registry-specific first primary cancer incidence rates. Results: During the study period, 959 cases of second primary cancers occurred after an initial esophageal cancer, resulting in a SIR of 1.15 (95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.22). Second primary stomach cancers were associated with first primary esophageal adenocarcinomas (SIR, 2.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.26-3.37) and second primary cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx (6.68; 5.33-8.26), stomach (1.53; 1.14-2.01), larynx (3.24; 1.88-5.18), lung (1.55; 1.28-1.87), kidney (1.88; 1.18-2.85), and thyroid (2.92; 1.18-6.02) were associated with first primary squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus. An excess of esophageal cancer as a second primary were observed following first primary cancers of the aerodigestive tract, female breast, cervix, testis, bladder, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and non–Hodgkin lymphoma. Conclusion: We observed associations of esophageal cancer with second primary head and neck cancers and lung cancer regardless of years of follow-up, which may suggest that common risk factors play a role in multiple tumor development. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(6):1543–9)

To clarify the role of previous lung diseases (PLDs) (chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia, tuberculosis, asbestosis and silicosis) in the development of lung cancer we conducted a pooled analysis in the International Lung Cancer Consortium (ILCCO). Data from 16 studies (9 population based case-control, 4 hospital based case-control, 2 mixed case-control and 1 cohort - 10 from North America, 5 from Europe and 1 from Asia) were pooled, including 24044 cases and 81256 controls. Study-specific effect estimates were derived using logistic regression models for case-control studies and Cox proportional hazards models for cohort studies adjusted for age, sex, education and pack-years of smoking. Effect estimates were then pooled using random effects models where summary effects for each of the PLDs were evaluated separately. Stratified analyses were conducted based on smoking status, histology and study design or control source. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the Cochrane Q statistic and Galbraith plots, and publication bias was evaluated using funnel plots as well as the Begg test. A previous history of emphysema conferred a relative risk (RR) of 2.17, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.67-2.82 (from 15 studies, p-het Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4826.