Race, socioeconomic status, and prostatic cancer

Using mortality and incidence data from Alameda County, California, this study attempted to determine whether the higher occurrence rate of prostatic cancer among black men as compared with whites in the United States might be explained by racial differences in factors associated with socioeconomic status. Each death or case of prostatic cancer was assigned to a social class based on census tract of residence, and rates by race and socioeconomic status were computed. Comparison of age-specific mortality and incidence rates by socioeconomic status reveals no gradient in either whites or blacks. The higher risk for blacks holds up at almost every age and socioeconomic level. However, the racial differences are less pronounced for incidence than for mortality. Racial differences in the occurrrence of deaths appearing in Part II of the death certificate are also examined.

Brief communication: Possible increased risk of lung cancer among beauticians

Death certificates of residents of Alameda County, California (1958-1962) with any mention of cancer were examined to determine the risk of cancer among beauticians. Twenty-four female beauticians were found among 3,460 adult females who died with cancer; four female beauticians were found in a sample of 1,000 females who died from causes other than cancer. The case and control certificates were matched for age and race. The resulting odds ratio (i.e., approximate relative risk of a cancer death) was slightly elevated (1.73) but was not statistically significant. Although a possible increase in the risk of cancer was found for several organ sites, the increase in risk for lung cancer was most striking. Analysis of pairs of death certificates, in which female controls dying of causes other than cancer were matched to female lung cancer cases for age, race, and date of death, yielded an odds ratio of 6.0. This finding suggested that the risk of lung cancer may be substantially increased among female beauticians.

Epithelioma Cuniculatum

A 57-year-old man had a tumor for five years on the plantar surface of his foot. It was treated successfully by surgical curettage. Clinical and pathological features of the tumor are identical and pathological features of the tumor are identical to descriptions of the rare tumor of the foot designated as epithelioma cuniculatum.

The association of economic status with the occurrence of lung cancer

Lung cancer in men was shown to be inversely associated with economic class by analysis of 1959-61 mortality rates from Buffalo, New York. Using five economis strata, white men below and above age 55 in the poorest group had rates 2.6 and 3.8 times higher than those in the richest. For women, the trend was not significant. The question that was investigated was whether, for males, an economic-class trend for smoking existed which paralleled that for lung cancer. Individuals from a Buffalo sample survey were classified according to cigarette smoking habits. Age was found highly associated with both smoking and economic class. In data from white males stratified for age, no significant association was observed between smoking and econimic class. In women, the upper economic groups smoked more, particularly those above age 55. Thus, a strong inverse economic class gradient for lung cancer in men, observed by other investigators among women, cannot be explained by class-related cigarette smoking patterns alone. The possible interaction of cigarette-smoking with other potential etiologic factors that may be associated with economic class is discussed.