Re: Cancer deficiency clusters

["jjcohen" <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET>]

I am not an epidemiologist, so perhaps someone else might shed some

light on this question.-- Suppose a community were found to

have a cancer incidence significantly below statistical expectation.

Certainly such communities must exist, perhaps even near nuclear power

plants.

What are the chances that one might obtain funding to investigate probable

causes for  cancer deficiency? Has such  study ever been done?





----- Original Message -----

From: Gibbs, S Julian <s.julian.gibbs@vanderbilt.edu>

To: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS) <jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov>; Radsafe Mail list

<radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 9:40 AM

Subject: RE: Cancer clusters





> Unfortunately it is not just this issue that provides studies for

> epidemiologists (Note I did not say income; most are salaried and

> get their money anyway.)  The multitudes of associations reported

> in the scientific literature and the lay press (e.g., eating peas

> of color x causes or prevents cancer in organ y).  Most of these

> studies use an alpha of 0.05.  That says that 5% of the studies are

> false positives!

> Note: I am not a statistician, but am aware of how one can distort

> the truth (I did not say lie) with statistics.







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