Do temporal trends in cancer incidence reveal organ system connections for cancer etiology?
Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir de données 1973-2015 des registres des cancers portant sur 421 062 patients (âge : 25-39 ans), cette étude analyse les tendances de l'incidence des cancers de 48 sites anatomiques pour identifier des facteurs étiologiques communs, en fonction du sexe
Background: Recent studies have reported substantial increases in cancer incidence in young adults under 40 years in the US. Methods: We applied hierarchical cluster analysis to identify cancer anatomical clustering, for 48 anatomic sites, using incidence trends since 1973 for 25-39 year-olds. Results: Temporal trends mapped to three major clusters in men involving six organ systems (digestive, endocrine, urinary, blood, respiratory, and male genital) and one cluster in women involving five systems (digestive, endocrine, urinary, and female genital). For both men and women, kidney, thyroid, and colorectal cancers consistently clustered for all ages 25-39 and for each 5-year age subgroup. Further, several cancers linked to the endocrine and digestive systems (three in men and six in women) had highly consistent temporal incidence trends. Conclusions: These findings suggest there may be organ system connections for cancers of the endocrine and digestive systems; etiologic approaches focused on clusters of cancers rather than individual cancers may prove fruitful.
Epidemiology 2020