Excerpted from Stedman’s Medical Dictionary
epidemiology: The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to control of health problems. Epidemiological studies involve surveillance, observation, hypothesis-testing, and experiment. Distribution is established by analyzing the time, place, and class of persons affected by a disease. Determinants may include physical, biological, social, cultural, and behavioral factors. Epidemiological methods are most commonly applied to the study of disease, however, they also may be used to examine causes of death or behaviors. Epidemiology plays a key role in formulation and implementation of public health policy.
etiology: The science and study of the causes of disease and their mode of operation.
Abstract: “Inflammatory breast cancer: the experience of the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) program“, Feb. 1985, Levine, et. al. “The current status of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) among U.S. females was reviewed with the use of data abstracted from medical records of patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 1975 and 1981 in nine geographic areas covered by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.“
Abstract: “Inflammatory breast carcinoma incidence and survival: the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results program of the National Cancer Institute, 1975-1992“, Jun. 1998, Chang, et. al. “Little is known about the cause of inflammatory breast carcinoma (IBC), the most aggressive form of breast cancer. To the authors’ knowledge, no studies have investigated whether IBC risk factors are different from those for breast carcinoma overall, and there has been only one report of IBC incidence and survival patterns. Between 1975-1977 and 1990-1992, IBC incidence doubled, increasing among whites from 0.3 to 0.7 cases per 100,000 person-years and among African Americans from 0.6 to 1.1 cases.“
Abstract: “Inflammatory breast cancer and body mass index” , Dec. 1998, Chang, et.al. Learn more about body mass index (BMI), and calculate your own BMI. “No studies have investigated the etiology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), the most lethal form of breast cancer. IBC patients were younger at menarche and the time of their first live birth than non-IBC and non-breast cancer patients. The proportion of premenopausal IBC patients was higher than the proportion of premenopausal women in the comparison groups, although differences were not significant. After adjusting for other factors, women in the highest BMI tertile (BMI > 26.65 kg/m2) relative to the lowest tertile (BMI < 22.27) had significantly increased IBC risk…“
Abstract: “Inflammatory breast cancer survival: the role of obesity and menopausal status at diagnosis“, Nov. 2000, Chang, et. al. “No previous studies have evaluated the effect of body size and menopausal status at diagnosis on survival from inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). We evaluated whether obesity and menopausal status had an impact on IBC survival in a cohort of 177 female IBC patients seen from 1974 to 1993 at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. These findings suggest that factors associated with larger body size at diagnosis may contribute to shorter IBC survival among postmenopausal women but not premenopausal women, who were found to have poorer survival regardless of body size.“
