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Opportunities for cancer epidemiology in developing countries

Abstract

Most cancer epidemiology studies involve people living in North America and Europe, which represent only a fraction of the global population. The wide variety of dietary, lifestyle and environmental exposures, as well as the genetic variation among people in developing countries can provide valuable new information on factors that contribute to cancer or that protect against it. What are the challenges and advantages to performing large epidemiological studies in developing nations?

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Figure 1: Changes in cancer mortality by region.
Figure 2: Global variations in cancer incidence for specific cancers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mustafa Dosemeci for his input on the role of environmental risk factors in cancer aetiology.

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Correspondence to Rashmi Sinha.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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DATABASES

National Cancer Institute

breast cancer

cervical cancer

colon cancer

lung cancer

prostate cancer

stomach cancer

FURTHER INFORMATION

Belmont Report

Declaration of Helsinki

GLOBOCAN 2000 — Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide

Nuremberg Code

Protection of Human Subjects

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Rastogi, T., Hildesheim, A. & Sinha, R. Opportunities for cancer epidemiology in developing countries. Nat Rev Cancer 4, 909–917 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1475

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