TY - JOUR
T1 - Considerations for epidemiologic studies to test the hypothesis of viral causation of human breast cancer
AU - Shah, Keerti V.
AU - Bang, Frederik B.
AU - Abbey, Helen
N1 - Funding Information:
1 Presented at the Symposium on :Mammary Neoplasia held by the Institute for Medical Research at Cherry Hill, N.]., November 11-13, 1971. 2 Supported in part by grant R07-AlIO048-ll from the Public Health Service to the Johns Hopkins Center for Medical Research and Training. S Department of Biostatistics.
PY - 1972/4
Y1 - 1972/4
N2 - Epidemiologic studies, designed to determine if there is a correlation between the presence of type-B particles in milk and a high incidence of breast cancer, would be most meaningful if they were done uniformly in several populations selected to cover a wide range of breast cancer incidence, e.g., Parsi and U.S. white women for high-incidence and Hindu and Japanese women for low-incidence populations,- and if frequencies and numbers of В particles in milk were compared in high-risk and control women in the same population. A history of breast cancer in a close blood relative may identify the high-risk woman in each of these populations, although the evidence for a familial aggregation of breast cancer is not unequivocal. Each lactating high-risk woman (with a family history of breast cancer) should be paired with one without such a history but matching with respect to other characteristics which influence breast cancer risk, e.g., ethnic group and religion, age, parity, and socioeconomic status. If the prevalence or numbers of В particles in the milk of high-risk women were higher as compared to that in control women in each population studied, such a finding would strengthen the hypothesis of В-type virus etiology. Much more definitive information would be obtained if normal lactating women were first studied for В particles in their milk and then followed for the occurrence of breast cancer
AB - Epidemiologic studies, designed to determine if there is a correlation between the presence of type-B particles in milk and a high incidence of breast cancer, would be most meaningful if they were done uniformly in several populations selected to cover a wide range of breast cancer incidence, e.g., Parsi and U.S. white women for high-incidence and Hindu and Japanese women for low-incidence populations,- and if frequencies and numbers of В particles in milk were compared in high-risk and control women in the same population. A history of breast cancer in a close blood relative may identify the high-risk woman in each of these populations, although the evidence for a familial aggregation of breast cancer is not unequivocal. Each lactating high-risk woman (with a family history of breast cancer) should be paired with one without such a history but matching with respect to other characteristics which influence breast cancer risk, e.g., ethnic group and religion, age, parity, and socioeconomic status. If the prevalence or numbers of В particles in the milk of high-risk women were higher as compared to that in control women in each population studied, such a finding would strengthen the hypothesis of В-type virus etiology. Much more definitive information would be obtained if normal lactating women were first studied for В particles in their milk and then followed for the occurrence of breast cancer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0015321813&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0015321813&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jnci/48.4.1035
DO - 10.1093/jnci/48.4.1035
M3 - Article
C2 - 4336867
AN - SCOPUS:0015321813
SN - 0027-8874
VL - 48
SP - 1035
EP - 1038
JO - Journal of the National Cancer Institute
JF - Journal of the National Cancer Institute
IS - 4
ER -