Cancers in the Urban Environment

 Content: Introduction for scientists --
 Introduction for laypersons --
 What cancers are --
 Environmental and other causes of cancer --
 Resources used to detect local increases in risk --
 Methods used to detect local increases in risk --
 Errors due to chance --
 Comparison between \"apples\" and \"oranges\" --
 Failure to detect local increases in risk --
 Investigating a lead --
 Guide to the figures --
 Interpretation --
 Scientific and technical notes --
 Oropharyngeal carcinoma --
 Salivary gland malignancies --
 Squamous carcinoma of the esophagus/gastric cardia --
 Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus/gastric cardia --
 Adenocarcinoma of the (lower) stomach --
 Carcinoma of the small intestine --
 Colon carcinoma, total (both upper and sigmoid) --
 Carcinoma of the upper colon --
 Carcinoma of the sigmoid colon --
 Carcinoma of the rectum --
 Hepatocellular carcinoma --
 Cholangiocarcinoma --
 Gallbladder carcinoma --
 Biliary tract carcinoma --
 Pancreas carcinoma --
 Carcinoma of the nose/sinuses --
 Carcinoma of the larynx --
 Lung and bronchus carcinoma, total (all types) --
 Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Large cell carcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Small cell carcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Adenocarcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Undifferentiated carcinoma of the lung and bronchus --
 Carcinoma of the lung and bronchus, not otherwise classified --
 Mesothelioma --
 Soft tissue sarcoma --
 Angiosarcoma --
 Kaposi sarcoma --
 Osteosarcoma --
 Ewing\'s sarcoma --
 Malignant chordoma --
 Malignant melanoma --
 Breast carcinoma --
 Squamous cervix carcinoma (invasive) --
 Endometrial (uterine corpus) carcinoma --
 Epithelial carcinoma of the ovary --
 Germ cell malignancies --
 Prostate carcinoma --
 Anogenital adenocarcinoma --
 Anogenital squamous carcinoma --
 Mixed cell genital tumors --
 Transitional cell (non-squamous) bladder carcinoma --
 Squamous bladder carcinoma --
 Renal cell carcinoma --
 Wilms tumor (nephroblastoma) --
 Retinoblastoma --
 Brain malignancies (gliomas) --
 Spinal cord malignancies --
 Neurolemoma (nerve sheath malignancy) --
 Neuroblastoma --
 Malignant meningioma --
 Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid --
 Follicular carcinoma of the thyroid --
 Other carcinoma of the thyroid --
 Pituitary carcinoma --
 Multiple endocrine neoplasia --
 Carcinoma of the thymus --
 Mixed cellularity Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Other Hodgkin lymphoma --
 All non-Hodgkin lymphomas (all non-Hodgkin lymphoma types) --
 Follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Diffuse small lymphocytic or plasmacytic B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Diffuse mixed B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 High-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Maltoma non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Other non-Hodgkin lymphoma --
 Central nervous system non-Hodgkin lymphomas (all non-Hodgkin lymphoma types) --
 Stomach non-Hodgkin lymphomas (all non-Hodgkin lymphoma types) --
 Other gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin lymphomas (all non-Hodgkin lymphoma types) --
 Lymph node/other organ non-Hodgkin lymphomas (all non-Hodgkin lymphoma types) --
 Multiple myeloma --
 Acute lymphoblastic leukemia --
 Chronic lymphocytic leukemia --
 Hairy cell leukemia --
 Acute non-lymphocytic leukemia --
 Chronic myelocytic leukemia --
 Other leukemias --
 All malignancies of infants/toddlers --
 All malignancies of older children --
 All malignancies of young adults --
 All malignancies of older adults --
 All malignancies --
 Overall summary.
 Abstract:             This volume, the first of its kind ever, is designed to provide both laypersons and professionals with a detailed description of the occurrence of each common form of cancer in the ethnically, socially, and environmentally complex milieu of a modern urban complex. The place is Los Angeles County, and the patterns of 72 different malignancies are described according to race, age, sex, social class calendar time (since 1972) and most notably, individual neighborhood, using detailed maps of high risk. The book permits residents to screen the malignancies and identify those of special concern locally, and to identify other communities with similar concerns. The pattern of each malignancy is briefly discussed with reference to background knowledge of causation and the degree to which the observed pattern was expected on that basis. Persons residing outside Los Angeles County will identify patterns likely to prevail in their own communities. Physicians and scientific investigators in California and elsewhere can use the material provided to counsel patients and evaluate the consistency of any specific pattern of occurrence with each specific causal hypothesis. A detailed appendix describes the source of data, provides the basis for the choices made in the production of the volume, and gives a perspective on the search for clusters of malignancy. * Compares different types of cancers with respect to the degree of non-random occurrence * Contains numerous maps detailing the demographic and geographic pattern of cancer occurrence in Los Angeles County * Provides an empirical perspective to the search for disease \"clusters.\"