Re: Are cancer rates increasing in US?

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	For more info on the ACSH position contact acsh@acsh.org. Probably
the best expert on the question of a cancer epidemic is Elizabeth Whelan,
but she has a large organization of supporters.

On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, John Goldsmith wrote:

> All of the same problems affect cancer mortality trends, and in addition
> there are problems of multiple causes of death and of competing risks of
> mortality, and the usual "confounders", such as age, sex, smoking,
> income, urbanization, etc.
>  Interpreting trend data for cancer is a job for epidemiologists.
>  From which disciplines does ACSH draw its wisdom ?
>                    John Goldsmith, Prof. of Epidemiology
> 
> On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Bernard L Cohen wrote:
> 
> > 
> > The position of ACSH on incidence rates vs mortality rates is as follows:
> > 
> > Reported increases in incidence rates are difficult to interpret because
> > they can reflect any combination of the following:
> > 
> > 1. changes in diagnostic criteria
> > 2. more disease surveillance
> > 3. better reporting of cases
> > 4. increases in screening for disease
> > 5. increased utilization of medical services
> > 6. true increases in disease incidence
> > 
> > There are problems in interpreting mortality data as well, but I don't
> > think they are as big as the problems in interpreting incidence data.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >                 The American Council on Science and Health
> >         1995 Broadway, 2nd Floor   New York, NY 10023-5860
> >                   Tel: 212/362-7044    Fax: 212/362-4919
> >                                    http://www.acsh.org
> > 
>