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A letter to the editor and a reply is presented in response to the article "Improvements in survival of gynaecological cancer in the Anglia region of England: are these all real?," by R. Crawford and D. Greenberg.

Background and Aims: Substance use and risk-taking are common during emerging adulthood, a transitional period when peer influences often increase and family influences decrease. Investigating relationships between social network features and substance use can inform community-based prevention programs. This study investigated whether substance use among emerging adults living in disadvantaged urban areas was influenced by peer and family social network messages that variously encouraged and discouraged substance use., Design: Cross-sectional, naturalistic field study., Setting and Participants: Lower-income neighborhoods in Birmingham, Alabama, USA with 344 participants (110 males, 234 females, ages 15-25 years; mean = 18.86 years), recruited via respondent-driven sampling., Measurements: During structured interviews conducted in community locations, the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test assessed substance use and related problems. Predictor variables were network characteristics, including presence of substance-using peers, messages from friends and family members about substance use and network sources for health information., Findings: Higher substance involvement was associated with friend and family encouragement of use and having close peer network members who used substances (Ps < 0.001). Peer discouragement of substance use was associated with reduced risk (b = - 1.46, P < 0.05), whereas family discouragement had no protective association., Conclusions: Social networks appear to be important in both promoting and preventing substance use in disadvantaged young adults in the United States., (© 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

In 2000, the Commissioning Guidance for gynaecological cancer services relied on a subset analysis within a retrospective study to support its requirement that surgery for carcinoma of the ovary be centralised. We have reviewed the literature covering this issue, especially that published in the past 6 years. There is no evidence for an advantage for specialist gynaecological oncologists over general gynaecologists for these women; studies that suggest that one exists fail to separate patients presenting to general surgeons, whose patients are at a clear disadvantage, from those seen by gynaecologists. There is evidence for the need for appropriate surgery in women with less extensive disease where the diagnostic difficulties are greatest. We argue for investment in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer and the provision of services for its medical treatment over a prolonged period.

The relationship of Quetelet index (w/h2), or body mass index (BMI), with the sum of skinfolds at five sites, two skinfold-corrected limb girths, and two bone breadths were studied in a cross-sectional sample of 12,282 men and 6,593 women aged 20-70 years. The correlations of the BMI with skinfolds (0.50), bone breadths (0.51), and girths (0.58) were too low for individual prediction. Contingency tables of the BMI and sum of skinfold categories further indict its use for the purpose of assessing adiposity status or monitoring change in individuals.