Riggs J E
Department of Neurology, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown 26506-9180, USA.
Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 1995 Jun;21(3):370-4. doi: 10.1006/rtph.1995.1051.
Lung cancer mortality rates in the elderly are increasing. Using published United States mortality data, annual age-specific lung cancer mortality rates from 1968 to 1989 were determined for age groups over age 50 and compared to corresponding annual age group population sizes. Rising lung cancer mortality rates among the elderly in the United States from 1968 to 1989 were increasingly dependent, with increasing age, upon increasing age group population size. This finding suggests that differential survival, and its effect upon the surviving gene pool in an aging population, may account for observed increasing lung cancer mortality rates in recent successive elderly cohorts. That is, increasing lung cancer mortality rates in the elderly may reflect changes in the genetic susceptibility of the surviving population rather than changes in environmental exposures.
老年人肺癌死亡率正在上升。利用已公布的美国死亡率数据，确定了1968年至1989年50岁以上各年龄组的年度特定年龄肺癌死亡率，并将其与相应年龄组的年度人口规模进行了比较。1968年至1989年期间，美国老年人肺癌死亡率上升越来越依赖于随着年龄增长而增加的年龄组人口规模。这一发现表明，差异生存及其对老龄化人口中存活基因库的影响，可能是近期连续老年队列中观察到的肺癌死亡率上升的原因。也就是说，老年人肺癌死亡率上升可能反映了存活人群遗传易感性的变化，而非环境暴露的变化。
