Letter From the Editors
In the daily press, we often read stories about the conflicting results among epidemiologic studies. One day a study suggests that coffee causes pancreatic cancer; the next day, a study shows it does not. A man claims cell phones caused his brain tumor; a few months later, a study shows they are harmless.
These are studies that focus on lifestyles and behavior of adulthood that can be ascertained with fair degrees of accuracy. Even under these circumstances, however, classical epidemiologic methods will not yield precise results in any single study. Consider, then, the difficulties inherent in looking at exposures that we have had in adolescence or childhood, 30 or 40 years ago, or even prenatally, and asking how our lives then may have influenced our risk of cancer as middle-aged or older adults. Such studies seem almost impossible to do. Almost…..
We often sit and marvel at the joy and beauty of pregnancy and what pleasure it must be to hold another life inside one’s womb. But, of course, mothers-to-be also recognize the awesome responsibility by not smoking, not drinking alcohol, and including the right amount of vitamins and other nutrients in their diet. A classical example is the use of diethylstilbestrol (DES) by pregnant women in the 1950’s to prevent miscarriage. DES was later found to cause certain rare cancers during the late adolescence or early adulthood of daughters born of these pregnancies. Adults who were exposed either as children or in utero to famine during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands during 1944-1945 also have been found to have different rates of breast cancer than the general population.
An article in our current issue of Cancer Prevention highlights the search for exposures that the individual has had in utero or in early childhood that can play a role in the risk of adult cancers. The evidence is new, but increasing and consistent that these factors can, indeed, affect subsequent risks of cancer. It gives us pause when we consider the rising epidemic of obesity in childhood, the use of tobacco by teenagers, and other exposures of early life and how they may affect us many years down the road.
The Editors
Andrew J. Dannenberg, MD
Henry R. Erle, MD-Roberts Family Professor of Medicine
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Co-Director
Cancer Prevention Program
Columbia Weill Cornell Cancer Centers
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Head of Cancer Prevention
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health
Co-Director
Cancer Prevention Program
Columbia Weill Cornell Cancer Centers
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
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