Summary of the December 15, 2009 issue of JNCI

Issue 24 of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute includes a study that found that long-term testicular cancer survivors are at high risk for Raynaud-like phenomena and neurological side effects. The next study and accompanying editorial dealt with arsenic biomethylation and oxidative DNA damage, while another found that funeral industry workers exposed to formaldehyde face higher risk of leukemia. One study analyzed data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Report and found that late recurrence is a risk for some cancers. In the last study, researchers found evidence of a statistically significant survival benefit from adjuvant tamoxifen among patients whose estrogen receptor-positive tumors had high levels of phosphorylation of ER-alpha at serine-118. And finally, this issue's brief communication looked at trends in brain tumor incidence in 4 Scandinavian countries during a time when cell phone usage sharply increased.