Br J Cancer. 2012 Jul 24;107(3):408-10. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2012.134.
Recent discussions on research priorities in the United States have revealed a widespread assumption that known risk factors entirely explain the historic international differences in rates of breast cancer. In fact, formal investigations of this question, both by modelling between-country differences and studies of migrants, indicate that an appreciable amount of the international differences in this disease remains unexplained. If this is not recognised, opportunities for research on breast cancer aetiology may be lost.
最近在美国进行的研究重点讨论揭示了一种普遍的假设,即已知的风险因素完全可以解释乳腺癌发病率在国际上的历史差异。事实上,通过对国家间差异建模和对移民的研究,对这个问题的正式调查表明,这种疾病的国际差异中有相当一部分仍然无法解释。如果没有认识到这一点,那么对乳腺癌病因学的研究机会可能会丧失。