Report on trends of incidence (1970-2002) of and mortality (1952-2002) from cancer in Germany.

Purpose: The paper presents the statistical analysis of current and past trends of cancer mortality rates in Germany in terms of annual percent change, overall and for the major sites, and contrasts them with trends in incidence of the Cancer Registry of the Saarland, the only registry in this country with long-term completeness. It addresses also the issue of a cross-over of cancer mortality and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the near future, as suggested by various authors.

Material And Methods: Analyses are based on the mortality data of the official mortality statistics as published by the Federal Statistical Office and reported annually to the WHO, and the regularly reported incidence data of the Cancer Registry of the Saarland.

Analysis of epidemiological cohort data on smoking effects and lung cancer with a multi-stage cancer model.

A stochastic two-stage cancer model is used to analyse the relation between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. The model contains the main rate-limiting stages of carcinogenesis, which include initiation, promotion (clonal expansion of initiated cells), malignant transformation and a lag time for tumour formation. Various data sets were used to test the model.

Reproductive and dietary determinants of the age at menopause in EPIC-Heidelberg.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the influence of reproductive and dietary factors on the age at menopause.

Methods: During follow-up of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort in Heidelberg (median duration 5.8 years), 1009 women experienced natural menopause.

Food and nutrient intake, anthropometric measurements and smoking according to alcohol consumption in the EPIC Heidelberg study.

Aims: The study was carried out to determine associations of reported alcohol intake with dietary habits, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and smoking.

Subjects And Methods: 24,894 subjects who participated in the baseline examination of the German part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) in Heidelberg and were between 35 and 65 years of age at baseline were included in the present cross-sectional analysis (11,617 men, 13,277 women). Diet and alcohol consumption were assessed with a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Fruits and vegetables and lung cancer: Findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Intake of fruits and vegetables is thought to protect against the development of lung cancer. However, some recent cohort and case-control studies have shown no protective effect. We have assessed the relation between fruit and vegetable intake and lung cancer incidence in the large prospective investigation on diet and cancer, the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).