On the role of aging in cancer incidence: analysis of the lung cancer data.
Age-specific lung cancer mortality rates for U.S. males and females from 1935 to 1978 were normalized to describe the percentage of total mortality in a given era which occurred at a given age interval. Correlation coefficients between age-mortality patterns for various eras were calculated and found to be highly positive. We conclude that the shape of the lung cancer age-mortality pattern has remained remarkably constant despite dramatic changes in the carcinogenicity of the lung environment, and suggest that shape is determined by an invariant influence which is best attributed to some aspect of the aging process.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors