Epidemiology of Cancer of Selected Sites in Poland and Polish Migrants [antikvár]

ForewordMuch of data reported in Dr. Staszewski's monograph was collected in studies undertaken jointly by the Oncological Institutes (Poland) and the National Cancer Institute (United States). Financial support was received from the Special Foreign Currency (Public Law 480) Program, the medical research component of which is directed by the Coordinating Commission for the Polish-American Scientific Collaboration and the National Institutes of Health. Funds through the Public Law 480 Program for the preparation and publication of the present monograph were awarded as a part of the National Library of Medicine's Health Research Communication Program in Poland.One motivation for work was the assembly of baseline data on cancer risks for comparison with the experience of Polish migrants to the United States and other countries. The migration of human populations is an experiment of nature that provides us with a tool that enables us to study the role of host and environmental factors in the development of disease. Cancer was the first group of diseases to be investigated systematically from this point of view and the current data from Poland will contribute to the existing pool of information on this subject. In years past the profile of site-specific cancer risks in Poland differed markedly from that prevailing in western Europe and the United States; for example, incidence and mortality from cancer of the breast and the large bowel have been far lower than in other countries. The risks for these sites among the Polish-born in the United States now approach those of the host population, which strongly suggests the intervention of environmental factors.Effects similar to those observed for Polish migrants are now being detected within Poland and Dr. Staszewski describes a transition in risks for breast, colon and other sites to levels more closely approximating those in western Europe and North America. The appearance of a transitional phase means that ongoing work in Poland should be pursued, since observations on populations in transition are more likely to detect and pinpoint the factors responsible than studies carried out in populations with a more or less constant and homogeneous background of risks.