Is there more to learn about the epidemiology of lung cancer?

Excerpt

For more than a half-century, epidemiological research has exhaustively addressed lung cancer. Initially motivated by quickly rising lung cancer mortality across the first half of the twentieth century, the wave of findings from the initial case–control studies and the subsequent cohort studies rapidly indicted cigarette smoking as the predominant cause [6, 7]. Given the potency of smoking as a cause of lung cancer, simple questionnaires and self-report were adequate to document the very strong association of smoking with lung cancer; relative risks, comparing persistent lifetime smokers to never smokers, were as high as 10–20 in the studies reported in the 1950s [7]. Epidemiological research also identified other strong causes: occupational agents, such as asbestos and radon, and ambient air pollution. The epidemiological findings had powerful consequences, leading to societal actions to curb tobacco use and to control workplace exposures. …