Advancing environmental epidemiologic methods to conform the cancer burden.
Am J Epidemiol
; 2024 Jul 20.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39030715
ABSTRACT
Even though many environmental carcinogens have been identified, studying their effects on specific cancers has been challenging in non-occupational settings where exposures may be chronic but at lower levels. Although exposure measurement methods have improved considerably, along with key opportunities to integrate multi-omic platforms, there remain challenges that need to be considered particularly around the design of studies. Cancer studies typically exclude individuals with prior cancers and start recruitment in midlife. This translates into a failure to capture individuals who may have been most susceptible because of both germline susceptibility and higher early life exposures that lead to premature mortality from cancer and/or other environmentally caused diseases like lung diseases. Using the example of breast cancer, we demonstrate how integration of susceptibility, both for cancer risk and exposure windows, may provide a more complete picture regarding the harm of many different environmental exposures. Choice of study design is critical to examine the effects of environmental exposures, and it will not be enough to just rely on the availability of existing cohorts and samples within these cohorts. In contrast, new, diverse, early onset case-control studies may provide many benefits to understanding the impact of environmental exposures on cancer risk and mortality.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Epidemiol
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos