CASE-CONTROL STUDIES OF CANCER IN ILLINOIS FARMERS USING DATA FROM THE ILLINOIS-STATE-CANCER-REGISTRY AND THE US-CENSUS-OF-AGRICULTURE

A series of case-control studies have been carried out to compare farm ers reported to the Illinois State Cancer Registry (ISCR) with other m ales reported to the ISCR between 1986 and 1988. Data on the number of farms in each Illinois county producing given agricultural commoditie s were obtained from the United States Census of Agriculture and used as surrogate exposure indicators. Employment as a farmer was found to be associated with cancer of the eye [odds ratio (OR) = 6.49, 95% conf idence interval (CI) = 1.78, 23.71], lip (OR = 4.42, 95% CI = 2.46, 7. 94), prostate (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.99, 1.35) and leukaemia (OR = 1.5 1, 95% CI = 1.01, 2.25). Wheat and soybean production were found to be positively associated with leukaemia. Hay and beef production were fo und to be positively associated with cancer of the prostate.