title: "The great debate" 1: Smoking, lung cancer, and cancer epidemiology.
abstract: During the first decades of the 20th century the lung cancer death rate increased sharply in developed countries, including Canada. An association with cigarette smoking was suspected. Between 1950 and 1960 many epidemiological studies confirmed this association. The validity of these studies was attacked fiercely by some renowned statistics. The resulting debate sharpened the methodological and analytical rigour of epidemiological studies. Epidemiology became an indispensable tool in cancer prevention.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's Univerity.
authors.forename: Gerry
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Connelly
mesh_terms: D004813:Epidemiology / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000266:history*; D012907:Smoking / Q000266:history*