Skip to main content
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 1974 Dec;9:299–305. doi: 10.1289/ehp.749299

Epidemiology of gastrointestinal cancer

Irving J Selikoff
PMCID: PMC1475395  PMID: 4470947

Abstract

Some 99,000 new cases of cancer of the colon are expected next year, an incidence rate higher than that for both cancer of the lung and cancer of the breast. Evidence from geographic pathology suggests that some environmental factors play a strong role in its etiology. Data obtained in the 1959 survey of one million people by the American Cancer Society and followed since, has failed to show correlation with any of the large number of factors listed. It is suggested that the etiology is one of multiple factors. The synergistic effect of exposure to asbestos and cigarette smoking in the production of bronchogenic carcinoma is demonstrated by data on cohorts of insulation workers. There was also a modest increase in the number of deaths from gastrointestinal cancer in asbestos workers, but smoking did not seem to act in synergistic fashion at that site, except perhaps in the esophagus. Deaths from cancer occurred almost entirely after a period of 20 years or more from initial exposure. The death rate from cancer tended to increase with duration of exposure, but a distinct rise over the expected was seen in those who had been exposed less than one year to amosite dust.

Full text

PDF
302

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Berg J. W., Haenszel W., Devesa S. S. Proceedings: Epidemiology of gastrointestinal cancer. Proc Natl Cancer Conf. 1972;7:459–464. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. ENTICKNAP J. B., SMITHER W. J. PERITONEAL TUMOURS IN ASBESTOSIS. Br J Ind Med. 1964 Jan;21:20–31. doi: 10.1136/oem.21.1.20. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. HAMMOND E. C. Cancer etiology: new prospective epidemiological study. CA Cancer J Clin. 1959 Sep-Oct;9:177–178. doi: 10.3322/canjclin.9.5.177. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hammond E. C. Smoking in relation to the death rates of one million men and women. Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 1966 Jan;19:127–204. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Reddy B. S., Wynder E. L. Large-bowel carcinogenesis: fecal constituents of populations with diverse incidence rates of colon cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1973 Jun;50(6):1437–1442. doi: 10.1093/jnci/50.6.1437. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. SELIKOFF I. J., CHURG J., HAMMOND E. C. ASBESTOS EXPOSURE AND NEOPLASIA. JAMA. 1964 Apr 6;188:22–26. doi: 10.1001/jama.1964.03060270028006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Selikoff I. J., Hammond E. C., Churg J. Asbestos exposure, smoking, and neoplasia. JAMA. 1968 Apr 8;204(2):106–112. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES