Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Cohort studies of etiology and survival after cancer: the unique needs for uninterrupted funding

  • Editorial
  • Published:
Cancer Causes & Control Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The existing prospective cohorts are providing key data that are guiding public health and clinical practice in many different areas. The existing cohorts can also provide the biological specimens and data to address genetic determinant of cancer now, rather than in a decade, and at far less cost than that proposed for a new national U.S. cohort. Review and funding mechanisms are needed to avoid disruption in follow-up and the associated damage to existing cohorts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Doll R, Hill A (1954) The mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits. A preliminary report. BMJ 328:1451–1455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Doll R, Peto R, Wheatley K, Gray R, Sutherland I (1994) Mortality in relation to smoking: 40 years’ observations on male British doctors. BMJ 309:901–911

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Dawber TR (1980) The Framingham Study: the epidemiology of atherosclerotic disease. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass

    Google Scholar 

  4. Felson D (1990) The epidemiology of knee osteoarthritis: results from the Framingham Osteoarthritis Study. Semin Arthritis Rheum 20(Suppl 1):42–50

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Colditz GA, Willett WC, Rotnitzky A, Manson JE (1995) Weight gain as a risk factor for clinical diabetes in women. Ann Intern Med 122:481–486

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hu FB, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ et al (2001) Diet, lifetsyle, and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women. N Eng J Med 345:790–797

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Holmes MD, Chen WY, Feskanich D, Kroenke CH, Colditz GA (2005) Physical activity and survival after breast cancer diagnosis. Jama 293(20):2479–2486

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Samet J, Munoz A (1998) Perspective: cohort studies. Epidemiol Rev 20:135–136

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Colditz GA, Sellers TA, Trapido E (2006) Epidemiology—identifying the causes and preventability of cancer? Nat Rev Cancer 6(1):75–83

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. The health consequences of smoking: a report of the Surgeon General. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2004). (Accessed March 19, 2005, at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2004/index.htm)

  11. Kawachi I, Colditz GA, Stampfer MJ et al (1993) Smoking cessation in relation to total mortality rates in women: a prospective cohort study. Ann Intern Med 119:992–1000

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Manson JE, Colditz GA, Stampfer MJ et al (1990) A prospective study of obesity and risk of coronary heart disease in women. N Engl J Med 322:882–889

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Hu FB, Willett WC, Li T, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Manson JE (2004) Adiposity as compared with physical activity in predicting mortality among women. N Engl J Med 351(26):2694–2703

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Eliassen AH, Colditz G, Rosner B, Willett W, Hankinson SE (2006) Adult weight change and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. JAMA 296:193–201

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Thun M, Peto R, Lopez A et al (1997) Alcohol consumption and mortality among middle-aged and elderly US adults. New Engl J Med 337:1705–1714

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Cho E, Smith-Warner SA, Ritz J et al (2004) Alcohol intake and colorectal cancer: a pooled analysis of 8 cohort studies. Ann Intern Med 140(8):603–613

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Fuchs CS, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA et al (1995) Alcohol consumption and mortality among women. N Engl J Med 332:1245–1250

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Martinez ME, Giovannucci E, Spiegelman D, Hunter DJ, Willett WC, Colditz GA (1997) Leisure-time physical activity, body size, and colon cancer in women. Nurses’ Health Study Research Group. J Natl Cancer Inst 89:948–955

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Colditz GA, Cannuscio CC, Frazier AL (1997) Physical activity and colon cancer prevention. Cancer Causes Control 8:649–667

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Willett WC (1998) Diet and coronary heart disease. In: Willett WC (ed) Nutritional epidemiology, chapter 17. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  21. Willett W, Dietz W, Colditz G (1999) Guidelines for healthy weight. N Engl J Med 341:427–434

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Hunter DJ, Riboli E, Haiman CA et al (2005) A candidate gene approach to searching for low-penetrance breast and prostate cancer genes. Nat Rev Cancer 5(12):977–985

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Speizer FE et al (1984) Test of the National Death Index. Am J Epidemiol 119:837–839

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Rich-Edwards JW, Corsano KA, Stampfer MJ (1994) Test of the National Death Index and Equifax Nationwide Death Search. Am J Epidemiol 140:1016–1019

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Colditz GA, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, London SJ, Segal MR, Speizer FE (1990) Patterns of weight change and their relation to diet in a cohort of healthy women. Am J Clin Nutr 51:1100–1105

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Flegal K, Carroll M, Kuczmarski R, Johnson C (1998) Overweight and obesity in the United States: prevalence and trends, 1960–1994. Int J Obes 22:39–47

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Keating N, Cleary P, Rossi A, Zaslavsky A, Ayanian J (1999) Use of hormone replacement therapy by postmenopausal women in the United States. Ann Int Med 130:545–553

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Biener L, Harris JE, Hamilton W (2000) Impact of the Massachusetts tobacco control programme: population based trend analysis. BMJ 321(7257):351–354

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Lee IM, Paffenbarger RS Jr, Hsieh CC (1991) Physical activity and risk of developing colorectal cancer among college alumni. J Natl Cancer Inst 83:1324–1329

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Lee I-M, Paffenbarger RS (1992) Change in body weight and longevity. J Am Med Assoc 268:2045–2049

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Colditz G, Rosner B (2000) Cumulative risk of breast cancer to age 70 years according to risk factor status: data from the Nurses’ Health Study. Am J Epidemiol 152(10):950–964

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL et al (2002) Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results from the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA 288(3):321–333

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Chen WY, Manson JE, Hankinson SE et al (2006) Unopposed estrogen therapy and the risk of invasive breast cancer. Arch Intern Med 166(9):1027–1032

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation. A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 1990 1990. Report No.: DHHS (CDC) 90-8416

  35. White E, Patterson R, Kriskal A et al (2004) VITamins and Lifestyle Cohort Study: study design and characteristics of supplement users. Am J Epidemiol 159:83–93

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Tooth L, Ware R, Bain C, Purdie DM, Dobson A (2005) Quality of reporting of observational longitudinal research. Am J Epidemiol 161(3):280–288

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Willett W, Colditz G (1999) Approaches to conducting large cohort studies. Epidemiol Rev 20:91–99

    Google Scholar 

  38. Bernstein L, Allen M, Anton-Culver H et al (2002) High breast cancer incidence rates among California teachers: results from the California Teachers Study (United States). Cancer Causes Control 13:625–635

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Ross JA, Sinner PJ, Blair CK, Cerhan JR, Folsom AR (2005) Hormone replacement therapy is not associated with an increased risk of leukemia (United States). Cancer Causes Control 16(5):483–488

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Harvie M, Howell A, Vierkant RA et al (2005) Association of gain and loss of weight before and after menopause with risk of postmenopausal breast cancer in the Iowa women’s health study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14(3):656–661

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Colditz GA, Hankinson SE (2005) The Nurses’ Health Study: lifestyle and health among women. Nat Rev Cancer 5(5):388–396

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Hankinson SE, Willett WC, Michaud DS et al (1998) Plasma prolactin levels and subsequent risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. J Natl Cancer Inst 91:629–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Kolonel LN, Altshuler D, Henderson BE (2004) The multiethnic cohort study: exploring genes, lifestyle and cancer risk. Nat Rev Cancer 4(7):519–527

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Le Marchand L, Haiman CA, Wilkens LR, Kolonel LN, Henderson BE (2004) MTHFR polymorphisms, diet, HRT, and breast cancer risk: the multiethnic cohort study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 13(12):2071–2077

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Le Marchand L, Kolonel LN, Henderson BE, Wilkens LR (2005) Association of an exon 1 polymorphism in the IGFBP3 gene with circulating IGFBP-3 levels and colorectal cancer risk: the multiethnic cohort study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14(5):1319–1321

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Cheng I, Stram DO, Penney K et al (2006) Common genetic variation in IGF1 and prostate cancer risk in the multiethnic cohort. J Natl Cancer Inst 98:123–134

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Michael Y, Kawachi I, Berkman L, Holmes M, Colditz G (2001) The persistent impact of breast carcinoma on functional health status: prospective evidence from the Nurses’ Health Study. Cancer 89:2176–2186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Michael YL, Berkman LF, Colditz GA, Holmes MD, Kawachi I (2002) Social networks and health-related quality of life in breast cancer survivors: a prospective study. J Psychosom Res 52(5):285–293

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Holmes MD, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Rosner B, Hunter DJ, Willett WC (1999) Dietary factors and the survival of women with breast carcinoma. Cancer 86:826–835

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Kroenke CH, Chen WY, Rosner B, Holmes MD (2005) Weight, weight gain, and survival after breast cancer diagnosis. J Clin Oncol 23(7):1370–1378

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Colditz GA (2005) Epidemiology and prevention of breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14(4):768–772

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Collins FS (2004) The case for a US prospective cohort study of genes and environment. Nature 429:475–477

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

G. Colditz is supported impart by an ACS Clinical Research Professorship and thanks Walter Willett for input to an earlier draft of this commentary.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Graham A. Colditz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Colditz, G.A. Cohort studies of etiology and survival after cancer: the unique needs for uninterrupted funding. Cancer Causes Control 18, 235–241 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-0114-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-0114-2

Keywords

Navigation