Recent Spatiotemporal Patterns of US Lung Cancer by Histologic Type.

Background: After a period of increasing rates, lung cancer incidence is declining in the US for men and women. We investigated lung cancer rate patterns by gender, geographic location, and histologic subtype, and for total lung cancer (TLC), for the entire study period, and for 2000-2011 from 17 surveillance, epidemiology, and end results areas.

Methods: For each gender-histologic type combination, time trend plots and maps of age-adjusted rates are presented.

Confidence intervals for rate ratios between geographic units.

Background: Ratios of age-adjusted rates between a set of geographic units and the overall area are of interest to the general public and to policy stakeholders. These ratios are correlated due to two reasons-the first being that each region is a component of the overall area and hence there is an overlap between them; and the second is that there is spatial autocorrelation between the regions. Existing methods in calculating the confidence intervals of rate ratios take into account the first source of correlation.

Urban sprawl, obesity, and cancer mortality in the United States: cross-sectional analysis and methodological challenges.

Background: Urban sprawl has the potential to influence cancer mortality via direct and indirect effects on obesity, access to health services, physical activity, transportation choices and other correlates of sprawl and urbanization.

Methods: This paper presents a cross-sectional analysis of associations between urban sprawl and cancer mortality in urban and suburban counties of the United States. This ecological analysis was designed to examine whether urban sprawl is associated with total and obesity-related cancer mortality and to what extent these associations differed in different regions of the US.

Predicting US- and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part II: evaluation of spatiotemporal projection methods for incidence.

Background: The current study was undertaken to evaluate the spatiotemporal projection models applied by the American Cancer Society to predict the number of new cancer cases.

Methods: Adaptations of a model that has been used since 2007 were evaluated. Modeling is conducted in 3 steps.

Predicting US- and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part I: evaluation of temporal projection methods for mortality.

Background: A study was undertaken to evaluate the temporal projection methods that are applied by the American Cancer Society to predict 4-year-ahead projections.

Methods: Cancer mortality data recorded in each year from 1969 through 2007 for the United States overall and for each state from the National Center for Health Statistics was obtained. Based on the mortality data through 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, Projections were made 4 years ahead to estimate the expected number of cancer deaths in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, respectively, in the United States and in each state, using 5 projection methods.

Covariate adjusted weighted normal spatial scan statistics with applications to study geographic clustering of obesity and lung cancer mortality in the United States.

In the field of cluster detection, a weighted normal model-based scan statistic was recently developed to analyze regional continuous data and to evaluate the clustering pattern of pre-defined cells (such as state, county, tract, school, hospital) that include many individuals. The continuous measures of interest are, for example, the survival rate, mortality rate, length of physical activity, or the obesity measure, namely, body mass index, at the cell level with an uncertainty measure for each cell. In this paper, we extend the method to search for clusters of the cells after adjusting for single/multiple categorical/continuous covariates.

Visualizing health data with micromaps.

Maps have long been used to display the geographic patterns of disease. Identification of cancer "hot spots", clusters of high rates, and subsequent speculation as to their cause led to important epidemiologic findings such as a link between smokeless tobacco use and oral cancer. Recent advances in computer systems have made interactive display of spatial data possible on everyone's desktop.

Associations between street connectivity and active transportation.

Background: Past studies of associations between measures of the built environment, particularly street connectivity, and active transportation (AT) or leisure walking/bicycling have largely failed to account for spatial autocorrelation of connectivity variables and have seldom examined both the propensity for AT and its duration in a coherent fashion. Such efforts could improve our understanding of the spatial and behavioral aspects of AT. We analyzed spatially identified data from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties collected as part of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey.

SKIP interacts with c-Myc and Menin to promote HIV-1 Tat transactivation.

The Ski-interacting protein SKIP/SNW1 associates with the P-TEFb/CDK9 elongation factor and coactivates inducible genes, including HIV-1. We show here that SKIP also associates with c-Myc and Menin, a subunit of the MLL1 histone methyltransferase (H3K4me3) complex and that HIV-1 Tat transactivation requires c-Myc and Menin, but not MLL1 or H3K4me3. RNAi-ChIP experiments reveal that SKIP acts downstream of Tat:P-TEFb to recruit c-Myc and its partner TRRAP, a scaffold for histone acetyltransferases, to the HIV-1 promoter.

A history and critique of U.S. mortality atlases.

This article presents a brief history of U.S. small area mortality atlases published since 1975, focusing on their content, cartographic style and findings resulting from the maps.

Identifying clusters of active transportation using spatial scan statistics.

Background: There is an intense interest in the possibility that neighborhood characteristics influence active transportation such as walking or biking. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a spatial cluster identification method can evaluate the geographic variation of active transportation and identify neighborhoods with unusually high/low levels of active transportation.

Methods: Self-reported walking/biking prevalence, demographic characteristics, street connectivity variables, and neighborhood socioeconomic data were collected from respondents to the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS; N=10,688) in Los Angeles County (LAC) and San Diego County (SDC).

Access to mammography screening in a large urban population: a multi-level analysis.

Objective: To understand area-based sociodemographics, physician and medical practice characteristics, and community indicators associated with mammography use in Los Angeles County. An earlier multi-level analysis by Gumpertz et al. found that distance to the nearest mammography facility helped explain the higher proportion of Latinas diagnosed with late stage breast cancer compared with non-Latina Whites in Los Angeles County.

Evaluating spatial methods for investigating global clustering and cluster detection of cancer cases.

There have been articles on comparing methods for global clustering evaluation and cluster detection in disease surveillance, but power and sample size (SS) requirements have not been explored for spatially correlated data in this area. We are developing such requirements for tests of spatial clustering and cluster detection for regional cancer cases. We compared global clustering methods including Moran's I, Tango's and Besag-Newell's R statistics, and cluster detection methods including circular and elliptic spatial scan statistics (SaTScan), flexibly shaped spatial scan statistics, Turnbull's cluster evaluation permutation procedure, local indicators of spatial association, and upper-level set scan statistics.

A new method to evaluate the completeness of case ascertainment by a cancer registry.

Background: Epidemiologic research into cancer and subsequent decision making to reduce the cancer burden in the population are dependent on the quality of available data. The more reliable the data, the more confident we can be that the decisions made would have the desired effect in the population. The North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) certifies population-based cancer registries, ensuring uniformity of data quality.

Census and geographic differences between respondents and nonrespondents in a case-control study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

To quantify nonresponse bias and estimate its potential impact, the authors compared census-based socioeconomic and demographic factors and geographic locations among respondents and nonrespondents in a multicenter case-control study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1998-2000). Using a geographic information system, the authors mapped current addresses and linked them to the 2000 US Census database to determine group-level demographic and socioeconomic information. They used logistic regression analysis to compute the risk of being a nonrespondent, separately for cases and controls.

A new method of estimating United States and state-level cancer incidence counts for the current calendar year.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has published the estimated number of new cancer cases and deaths in the current year for the United States that are commonly used by cancer control planners and the media. The methods used to produce these estimates have changed over the years as data (incidence) and statistical models improved. In this paper we present a new method that uses statistical models of cancer incidence that incorporate potential predictors of spatial and temporal variation of cancer occurrence and that account for delay in case reporting and then projects these estimated numbers of cases ahead 4 years using a piecewise linear (joinpoint) regression method.

The Spt6 SH2 domain binds Ser2-P RNAPII to direct Iws1-dependent mRNA splicing and export.

Spt6 promotes transcription elongation at many genes and functions as a histone H3 chaperone to alter chromatin structure during transcription. We show here that mammalian Spt6 binds Ser2-phosphorylated (Ser2P) RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) through a primitive SH2 domain, which recognizes phosphoserine rather than phosphotyrosine residues. Surprisingly, a point mutation in the Spt6 SH2 domain (R1358K) blocked binding to RNAPIIo without affecting transcription elongation rates in vitro.

Detection of spatial clusters: application to cancer survival as a continuous outcome.

In this article, we develop the first detailed illustration of the use of a cluster detection method using a spatial scan statistic based on an exponential survival model. We use this approach to study the spatial patterns of survival of patients with stage III or stage IV colorectal cancer or with stage I/II, stage III, or stage IV lung cancer in the State of California and the County of Los Angeles (LA) diagnosed during 1988 through 2002. We present the location of the detected clusters of short survival or long survival and compute nonparametric estimates of survival inside and outside of those detected clusters confirming the survival pattern detected by the spatial scan statistic in both areas.

The crossroads of GIS and health information: a workshop on developing a research agenda to improve cancer control.

Cancer control researchers seek to reduce the burden of cancer by studying interventions, their impact in defined populations, and the means by which they can be better used. The first step in cancer control is identifying where the cancer burden is elevated, which suggests locations where interventions are needed. Geographic information systems (GIS) and other spatial analytic methods provide such a solution and thus can play a major role in cancer control.

Current practices in spatial analysis of cancer data: mapping health statistics to inform policymakers and the public.

Background: To communicate population-based cancer statistics, cancer researchers have a long tradition of presenting data in a spatial representation, or map. Historically, health data were presented in printed atlases in which the map producer selected the content and format. The availability of geographic information systems (GIS) with comprehensive mapping and spatial analysis capability for desktop and Internet mapping has greatly expanded the number of producers and consumers of health maps, including policymakers and the public.

U.S. congressional district cancer death rates.

Background: Geographic patterns of cancer death rates in the U.S. have customarily been presented by county or aggregated into state economic or health service areas.

Geographic patterns of advanced breast cancer in Los Angeles: associations with biological and sociodemographic factors (United States).

Objective: Examination of patterns of advanced breast cancer may provide evidence needed to direct health care resources to those communities or population groups in greatest need. We assessed to what degree biologic, ethnic, and sociodemographic factors could explain such patterns within Los Angeles County.

Methods: The proportion of cases of advanced disease among all breast cancer cases identified during 1992-1996 were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models with random census tract effects.

Spatial analysis of prostate cancer incidence and race in Virginia, 1990-1999.

Background: Racial disparities exist in prostate cancer incidence. An important contributor to these disparities may be socioeconomic status.

Methods: Virginia Cancer Registry data, 1990-1999 (37,373 cases) were geocoded to the Census tract and county level.

An elliptic spatial scan statistic.

The spatial scan statistic is commonly used for geographical disease cluster detection, cluster evaluation and disease surveillance. The most commonly used shape of the scanning window is circular. In this paper we explore an elliptic version of the spatial scan statistic, using a scanning window of variable location, shape (eccentricity), angle and size, and with and without an eccentricity penalty.