Cancer Epidemiology

The field of Cancer Epidemiology is a dynamic and constantly evolving area of research and clinical application. A key focus of Cancer Epidemiology is to quantify the incidence and prevalence of the disease and to measure outcomes such as morbidity and mortality. Typically, the goal is to identify putative risk factors by comparing exposed with unexposed populations and using epidemiologic techniques including causal inference and survival analysis to assess cancer risk. Etiologic factors may be environmental in nature (e.g., pesticides, electromagnetic fields, UV radiation, groundwater contamination, mercury in fish, indoor building-material off-gassing, cellular towers), associated with harmful behaviors (e.g., cigarette smoking, fat in diet, anal/oral sex, alcohol use, inactivity), a consequence of modern lifestyle (poor sleep, job anxiety, marital stress), attributable to innate immunologic and genetic determinants, or related to other sources (e.g., socio-economic position, discrimination). An exposure may be a high-risk, single-time event (e.g., atomic radiation), or more commonly, a continuous but cumulative lower risk event such as daily contact with pesticides on the farm or aromatic amines in the kitchen. Some cancer risks also may be characterized as “Hit-and-Run” (e.g., non-permissive virus exposure) and leave no detectable fingerprints after exposure. Furthermore, gene-environment and gene-gene interactions may play important roles in cancer risk. Research in the field of Cancer Epidemiology is complicated by low incidence rates for most cancers, tumour heterogeneity, and other factors such as lead-time and length biases.

This Research Topic welcomes review articles related to the field of Cancer Epidemiology.

Example topics of interest include:

• Genetic epidemiology of cancer
• Obesity and cancer
• Infection and cancer
• Cancer biomarkers
• Non-thermal radiation
• UV exposure
• Hormones and cancer
• Immunology and cancer
• Air population and cancer
• Occupation exposures and cancer
• Electromagnetic fields and cancer
• Stress and cancer
• Exercise and cancer
• SES and Cancer
• Health Disparites of cancer
• Overview of specific cancers (e.g., lung, brain, cervical, breast, skin, anogenital, head and neck, liver, soft-tissue) or histologies (e.g., squamous cell, adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular, neuroepithelial, gliomas)