Cancer and construction: what occupational histories in a Canadian community reveal.

From 2000 to 2002, male patients at a Canadian cancer treatment center with new-incident head-and-neck or esophageal cancers were invited to participate in a population-based study. The study population included 87 cases and 172 controls. A lifetime-history questionnaire was administered.

Occupation and breast cancer: a Canadian case-control study.

A local collaborative process was launched in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to explore the role of occupation as a risk factor for cancer. An initial hypothesis-generating study found an increased risk for breast cancer among women aged 55 years or younger who had ever worked in farming. On the basis of this result, a 2-year case-control study was undertaken to evaluate the lifetime occupational histories of women with breast cancer.

An international comparison of breast cancer survival: Winnipeg, Manitoba and Des Moines, Iowa, metropolitan areas.

Purpose: Extending previous Canadian-United States cancer survival comparisons in large metropolitan areas, this study compares breast cancer survival in smaller metropolitan areas: Winnipeg, Manitoba and Des Moines, Iowa.

Methods: Manitoba and Iowa cancer registries, respectively, provided a total of 2,383 and 1,545 women with breast cancer (1984 to 1992, followed until December 31, 1997). Socioeconomic data for each person's residence at the time of diagnosis was taken from population censuses.

Occupational histories of cancer patients in a Canadian cancer treatment center and the generated hypothesis regarding breast cancer and farming.

Occupational exposures increase cancer risks. The Windsor Regional Cancer Centre in Windsor, Ontario, was the first Canadian cancer treatment center to collect the work histories of its patients, which were recorded using a computer-based questionnaire. Breast cancer cases represented the largest respondent group.

Randomized trial of breast irradiation schedules after lumpectomy for women with lymph node-negative breast cancer.

Background: Breast irradiation after lumpectomy is an integral component of breast-conserving therapy that reduces the local recurrence of breast cancer. Because an optimal fractionation schedule (radiation dose given in a specified number of fractions or treatment sessions over a defined time) for breast irradiation has not been uniformly accepted, we examined whether a 22-day fractionation schedule was as effective as the more traditional 35-day schedule in reducing recurrence.

Methods: Women with invasive breast cancer who were treated by lumpectomy and had pathologically clear resection margins and negative axillary lymph nodes were randomly assigned to receive whole breast irradiation of 42.

A pilot study evaluating the safety and microbiologic efficacy of an economically viable antimicrobial lozenge in patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation therapy.

Background: Mucositis occurs in almost all radiotherapy-treated head and neck cancer patients, in approximately 75% of patients receiving hematopoietic marrow transplantation, and in approximately 40% of all patients who receive chemotherapy. Mucositis is painful, may affect all oral functions, and is a dose- and rate-limiting toxicity of therapy for cancer. Radiation-associated mucositis (onset, intensity, and duration) has been shown in recent clinical trials to be modified by the use of antibacterial/antifungal lozenges.