Pooling prospective studies to investigate the etiology of second cancers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

With over 13 million cancer survivors in the United States today, second cancers are of rapidly growing importance. However, data on nontreatment risk factors for second cancers are sparse. We explored the feasibility of pooling data from cohort studies of cancer incidence to investigate second cancer etiology.

Methods

We combined data from five prospective studies including more than 800,000 individuals. We compared study designs and populations; evaluated availability of and ability to harmonize risk factor data; compared incidence and survival for common first primary malignancies and incidence of second primary malignancies; and estimated sample size requirements.

Results

Overall, 96,513 incident, first primary malignancies were diagnosed during 1985 to

SUBMITTER: Black A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4119533 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature