If your eyes glaze over when someone mentions research or epidemiology, you are not alone. Many people do not even know what those terms mean or represent.
Here is one way to think about it. Do you know someone who has cancer, has recovered from cancer or died from cancer? Then, you know someone who has likely benefitted from epidemiology research that informed their diagnosis or treatment. Even people who have died from cancer may have lived longer or suffered less based on our latest understanding of cancer patterns in different populations.
Here is another example. Healthy People 2020 recommends the following practice to help newly diagnosed cancer patients. Epidemiology studies (like the one cited below) helped to inform the best in clinical practices AND help with cancer prevention
Copied from the HP2020 webpage on genomics.
The 2nd recommendation is from the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention Working Group:
All people who are newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer should receive counseling and educational materials about genetic testing. Family members could benefit from knowing whether the colorectal cancer in their family is a hereditary form called Lynch syndrome.2Screening interventions could potentially reduce the risk of colorectal cancer among men and women with Lynch syndrome by 60 percent.3
Abstract copied from the American Journal of Epidemiology’s website:
Aggregation of Ovarian Cancer with Breast, Ovarian, Colorectal and Prostate Cancer in First-degree Relatives
- Ko-Hui Tung1,
- Marc T. Goodman1,
- Anna H. Wu2,
- Katharine McDuffie1,
- Lynne R. Wilkens1,
- Abraham M. Y. Nomura1 and
- Laurence N. Kolonel1
+Author Affiliations
1 Cancer Etiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.
2 Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Abstract Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated a tendency for common cancers to aggregate in families. The authors investigated the effects of family history of cancer at multiple sites, including the breast, ovary, colorectum, and prostate, on ovarian cancer risk among 607 controls and 558 ovarian cases in Hawaii and Los Angeles, California, in 1993–1999. A family history of cancer of the breast, ovary, colorectum, or prostate in first-degree relatives was associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1, 2.6; OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.3, 7.9; OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 0.9, 2.5; and OR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.0, 2.8, respectively). A greater risk of ovarian cancer was observed for women with parents rather than siblings with a history of breast or prostate cancer and for women with parental colorectal cancer diagnosed at an early age, suggesting a genetic predisposition among these women. The risk of nonmucinous tumors, but not mucinous tumors, was positively associated with a family history of cancer. No significant interaction effects on risk existed between oral contraceptive pill use or pregnancy and family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Study findings suggest that ovarian cancer aggregates with several common cancers in family members.
