CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF A STRONG LINK BETWEEN FEMALE LUNG AND COLON ADENOCARCINOMA DEVELOPMENT

Incidence rates for lung cancers demonstrate marked international vari ation in values for the different histological sub-types. In order to determine whether adenocarcinomas (AC) at this site might share risk f actors with other AC, for example in the breast, ovary, corpus, cervix and colo-rectum, a comparison of data in the IARC/WHO Cancer Incidenc e in Five Continents Vol VII was made for selected countries in Europe , North America, Australasia and Asia. Significant correlations were f ound between lung AC incidence/100,000 population and all-country data for breast and colon cancers (p<0.05 and p<0.005, respectively) as we ll as cervical AC (p<0.005), Significant links remained in many cases after separation into Asian and Western groups. An additional correlat ion with endometrial and ovarian cancers, but not esophageal or cervic al A.C, was also noted (p<0.05). Links between lung, colon and cervica l AC, but not breast cancers, persisted on partial correlation analysi s. A significant negative correlation with ovarian AC also became evid ent with the latter analysis. The results provide support for the sugg estion that hormonal factors may be important for the development of l ung adenocarcinomas in females, with some suggestion of a greater role for insulin, or some other colon cancer-associated humoral influence, than for estrogen.