Epidemiology & Public Health

Epidemiology and Cancers

Cancer epidemiology is the division of epidemiology which is dealing with the disease cancer. Epidemiology is concerned with cases that appear in populations: the primary units of concern are groups of people, not separate individuals. In fact, cancer epidemiological studies may target on precursors of cancer. Randomized controlled trials then test whether conclusions generated by epidemiological studies and laboratory data analysis actually result in reduced cancer incidence and mortality. Some cancer researchers have discussed that negative cancer clinical trials lack sufficient statistical power to discover a actual benefit to treatment. This may be because of fewer patients enrolled in the study than originally planned.