American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 21, 2005
American Journal of Epidemiology 2005 162(9):823-824; doi:10.1093/aje/kwi290
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Invited Commentary |
Invited Commentary: Do Clusters of Leukemia and Lymphoma Provide Evidence for an Infectious Cause?
From the Epidemiology and Genetics Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
Correspondence to Dr. Graham R. Law, Epidemiology and Genetics Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Seebohm Rowntree Building, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom (e-mail: graham.law@egu.york.ac.uk).
Received for publication May 17, 2005. Accepted for publication July 18, 2005.
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
In this issue of the Journal, Heath (1
) presents a detailed account of investigations into eight clusters of childhood leukemia and lymphoma carried out by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the 1960s and 1970s. The clusters, chosen for characteristics suggestive of an infectious etiology, were selected from 50 such investigations undertaken during this time period. Heath concludes that indicators of interpersonal contact suggest that infectious disease underlies the etiology of childhood leukemia and lymphoma. Do clusters really provide such evidence?
A cluster is an excess incidence of related health events occurring at the same place, the same time, or (more usually) both. The difficulties involved
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C. W. Heath Jr. Heath Responds to "Do Leukemia/Lymphoma Clusters Have an Infectious Cause?" Am. J. Epidemiol., November 1, 2005; 162(9): 825 - 825. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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