CHILDHOOD CANCER--ETIOLOGIC CLUES USING GIS

描述：(改编自《调查者摘要》)人们对此知之甚少 儿童癌症的原因，但越来越多的公众 担心环境毒物可能会导致 发展出这种不同类型的疾病。加利福尼亚州，拥有 世界上最大的以人群为基础的癌症登记，具有独特的 丰富的环境暴露数据库，提供了一个不同寻常的机会 从地理和社会文化角度评估这些罕见的恶性肿瘤 不同的设置。拟议的研究旨在评估头五年 (1988-1992)加州全州人群儿童癌症 将发病率数据与地理指标相结合 国家的社会文化多样性，并与井相结合 特征和时间相关的全州范围内详细的环境 曝光信息，探索当前一些比较突出的 关于环境影响这些疾病病因学的假说。 这项工作旨在建立在加州卫生部的基础上 服务/环境卫生调查科的长期工作历史 儿童癌症“聚集性”的研究，在表征环境方面 暴露于对人类健康的关切，并在发展地理上 补充流行病学的信息系统(GIS)分析策略 研究努力。 具体目标是评估以下各项： -儿童癌症发病率如何随着地理位置的不同而变化 环境排放或暴露； -儿童癌症发病率如何随人口统计特征而变化 人口；以及 -环境或人口风险的独立影响 联想。 拟议的研究旨在确定值得注意的风险关联 更深入的调查，同时尽量减少 生态研究。调查人员表示，唯一的可获得性 现有的数据库，以表征暴露和疾病结果 加利福尼亚州庞大而多样的人口提供了一个机会 整合流行病学、环境暴露和地理信息系统分析策略 提高对一组罕见病影响因素的认识 这构成了儿童死亡的主要原因。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from Investigator's Abstract) Little is known about the causes of childhood cancers, but there has been increasing public concern that environmental toxicants may contribute to the risk of developing this heterogeneous group of diseases. California, with the largest population-based cancer registry in the world and with a unique wealth of environmental exposure databases, provides an unusual opportunity to evaluate these rare malignancies in geographically and socio-culturally diverse settings. The proposed study seeks to evaluate the first five years (1988-1992) of California statewide population-based childhood cancer incidence data in conjunction with geographic indicators of the socio-cultural diversity of the state, and in conjunction with well characterized and temporally relevant detailed statewide environmental exposure information, to explore some of the more prominent current hypotheses about environmental influences on the etiology of these diseases. This work is designed to build on the California Department of Health Services/Environmental Health Investigation Branch's long history of work in the study of childhood cancer "clusters", in characterizing environmental exposures of concern to human health, and in developing geographic information system (GIS) analysis strategies to complement epidemiologic research efforts. Specific aims are targeted at an evaluation of: - How childhood cancer rates vary with geographically defined environmental emissions or exposures; - How childhood cancer rates vary by demographic characteristics of the population; and - The independent effects of environmental or demographic risk associations. The proposed research is designed to identify risk associations worthy of more in-depth investigation, while minimizing some of the limitations of ecologic research. The investigators state that the availability of unique existing databases to characterize both exposure and disease outcome in California's large and heterogeneous population offer an opportunity to integrate epidemiologic, environmental exposure, and GIS analytic strategies to enhance our understanding of factors influencing a group of rare diseases which constitute a major cause of death in children.