Risk of dying from tuberculosis or cancer: further aspects of a possible association.
Successive cohorts of people born in different periods since 1850 having been living longer, but the proportion in each cohort dying from cancer has increased considerably, while the proportion dying from tuberculosis has declined in such a way as to offset the increased risk of dying from cancer. Thus for successive birth cohorts the proportion dying from either disease has remained constant and this phenomenon has been found for Wales, Scotland and Ireland separately and for Pennsylvania-New Jersey for which data are available from 1860, as well as for England and Wales. The findings are discussed in relation to a working hypothesis that a proportion of any population may be less equipped immunologically to cope with infection with tubercle bacillus and that this deficiency may put them at risk of dying from cancer later in life.
D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000401:mortality; D012306:Risk; D013997:Time Factors; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000266:history* / Q000401:mortality; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States