Radiation Oncology/Cancer epidemiology

This page is for articles pertaining to general cancer epidemiology, such as the role of smoking in causing cancer, etc. This page should not be used to list the most common cancers. That should be done separately.

• British Doctors Study (1951 - )
  • PMID 1009386 — "Mortality in relation to smoking: 20 years' observations on male British doctors." Doll R et al. Br Med J. 1976 Dec 25;2(6051):1525-36.
  • 34,440 men. Followed for 20 years. Ratio of death for smokers under age 70 was 2:1. Lung cancer incidence fell as smoking decreased.
  • This is the first study to establish a causal relationship between smoking and a number of cancers and heart disease.

Obesity

• American Cancer Society Prevention Study II
  • PMID 12711737 — "Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults." Calle EE et al. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 24;348(17):1625-38.
  • Cohort study. 900,000 adults. 16 years follow-up.
  • RR for breast cancer associated with increasing body-mass index > 25. For men, RR of any cancer was 1.52 for BMI > 25. For women, RR was 1.62 for BMI > 25. BMI also associated with higher rates of death due to cancers of the esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidney, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma.

• Iowa Women's Health Study
  • PMID 8419667 — "Body fat distribution and 5-year risk of death in older women." Folsom AR et al. JAMA. 1993 Jan 27;269(4):483-7.
  • Cohort study. 21,707 women. Follow-up 7 years.
  • Increased breast cancer mortality with increased waist-hip ratio.

Smoking

Lung Cancer:

• PMID 16189363, 2005 — "Effect of smoking reduction on lung cancer." Godtfredsen NS et al. JAMA. 2005 Sep 28;294(12):1505-10.