The Philadelphia pulmonary neoplasm research project: basic risk factors of lung cancer in older men.

Abstract

Boucot, K. R., W. Weiss (Philadelphia Pulmonary Neoplasm Research Project, 311 S. Juniper St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107), H. Seidman, W. J. Carnahan and D. A. Cooper. The Philadelphia Pulmonary Neoplasm Research Project; basic risk factors of lung cancer in older men. Amer J Epidemiol 95: 4–16, 1972.–One hundred twenty-one new lung cancers developed among 6136 men aged 45 and over who volunteered to report semiannually for chest x-rays and questionnaires about symptoms, smoking habits, etc., over a 10-year period beginning in 1951. The risk of developing lung cancer increased with increasing age, was higher in nonwhites than in whites, and bore a dose-response relationship to cigarette smoking. As crudely measured by dust-fall and sulfur dioxide levels post facto in 1969, there was no evidence that the risk increased with increasing levels of these air pollutants. Exposure to asbestos was the greatest occupational hazard.