In the United States, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women even though an extensive list of risk factors has been well-characterized. Far and away the most important cause of lung cancer is exposure to tobacco smoke through active or passive smoking. The reductions in smoking prevalence in men that occurred in the late 1960s through the 1980s will continue to drive the lung cancer mortality rates downward in men during the first portion of this century. This favorable trend will not persist unless further reductions in smoking prevalence are achieved.

https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(15)32981-0/pdf

Epidemiology of Lung Cancer

Toxicological profile for arsenic

Epidemiology of Lung Cancer: ACCP Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (2nd Edition)

A new method for detecting spatial clustering of events in populations with non-uniform density is proposed. The method is based on selecting controls from the population at risk and computing interpoint distances for the combined sample. Nonparametric tests are developed which are based on the number of cases among the k nearest neighbours of each case and the number of cases nearer than the k nearest control. The performance of these tests is evaluated analytically and by simulation and the method is applied to a data set on the locations of cases of childhood leukaemia and lymphoma in a defined geographical area.

https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.2517-6161.1990.tb01773.x

Spatial clustering for inhomogeneous populations

The Epidemiology of Lung Cancer

In vitro cytogenetic studies of amosite, chrysotile, and crocidolite asbestos have shown that these fibers may induce chromosome abnormalities and an elevated sister chromatid exchange (SCE) rate in mammalian cells. Twenty-five asbestos insulators (6 with radiographic asbestosis) were compared to 14 controls frequency matched for age and were found to have a marginally increased SCE rate in circulating lymphocytes with increasing years of exposure (P= 0.057). There was a significant association between SCE rate and smoking (P=0.002) after controlling for years of asbestos exposure and age. Smoking asbestos insulators had the highest SCE rate. Sister chromatid exchanges in chromosomes of group A, i.e., the group with the longest chromosomes, were significantly associated with asbestos exposure and cigarette smoking, with an interaction between the two.

Sister Chromatid Exchange Frequency in Asbestos Workers

Because of a reported association between residence in counties with nonferrous smelters and increased risk of lung cancer, we studied the relationship between distance of residence from nonferrous smelters and lung cancer. Patients with lung cancer and patients with other cancers not known to be associated with smelter effluent (breast, prostate, and colon) were compared. All patients lived within a 20-kilometer radius around one of 10 nonferrous smelters in five western states during 1970-1977. Data were obtained from cancer registries or death certificates and were examined separately for each area. Addresses at the time of diagnosis or death were plotted on U.S. Geological Survey maps to calculate distance from each smelter. The distribution of lung cancer near the smelters was not significantly different from the distribution of control cancers in any of the areas studied.

Grace Chiu

Papers

Sister Chromatid Exchange Frequency in Asbestos Workers

Relationship between lung cancer and distance of residence from nonferrous smelter stack effluent

Cancer clustering around point sources of pollution: Assessment by a case-control methodology