Studies from National Institutes of Health, Division of Cancer Prevention reveal new findings on lung cancer epidemiology

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March 9th, 2009

   2009 MAR 9 -- Investigators publish new data in the report 'Death certificates provide an adequate source of cause of death information when evaluating lung cancer mortality: an example from the Mayo Lung Project.' According to a study from the United States, "To assess the accuracy of death certificates in assigning lung cancer as the underlying cause of death, death certificate data were compared to mortality review committee-determined causes of death among participants in the Mayo Lung Project. Further, the impact of death certificate misclassification on lung cancer mortality rates and Cox proportional hazards models was evaluated."

   "The Mayo Lung Project (1971-1983) was a randomized controlled trial of lung cancer screening; participants were male smokers aged 45 years and older who were seen as outpatients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Overall there were 237 lung cancer deaths according to mortality review, and 224 according to the death certificate (sensitivity 88.6 percent, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) 83.9, 92.4; specificity 99.1 percent, 95 percent CI 98.6, 99.5). As compared to the mortality review committee's determination, the use of death certificate data resulted only in slight decreases to the calculated lung cancer mortality rates for each screening arm, and did not result in appreciable changes to hazard ratios for lung cancer mortality in Cox regression models," wrote V.P. Doria-Rose and colleagues, National Institutes of Health, Division of Cancer Prevention.

   The researchers concluded: "In these data, death certificates were sufficiently sensitive and specific such that their use did not result in a meaningful change to mortality-based outcomes."

   Doria-Rose and colleagues published their study in Lung Cancer (Death certificates provide an adequate source of cause of death information when evaluating lung cancer mortality: an example from the Mayo Lung Project. Lung Cancer, 2009;63(2):295-300).

   For more information, contact V.P. Doria-Rose, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-7354 USA..

   Publisher contact information for the journal Lung Cancer is: Springer, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA.

   Keywords: United States, Bethesda, Lung Cancer Epidemiology, Cancer Epidemiology, Clinical Trial Research, Lung Cancer, Lung Neoplasms, Oncology.

   This article was prepared by Biotech Business Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Biotech Business Week via NewsRx.com.

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