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Aetiology and Epidemiology

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Cancer in Children

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Abstract

The discovery that transplacental chemical carcinogenesis can occur in man was made by an epidemiologic study. In Boston seven young women developed a very rare cancer, adenocarcinoma of the vagina, within a 4-year interval [7]. By looking back into their histories, it was found that six of the mothers had received stilboestrol during pregnancy [8]. The latent period was 14–22 years. The relationship between drug and effect was quickly confirmed by data for five more cases recorded in the New York State Tumor Registry [6]. Were it not for the rarity of the neoplasm, the cluster of cases would have gone unnoticed in Boston.

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Authors
  1. R. W. Miller
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiotherapy, Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, London and Surrey, UK

    H. Julian G. Bloom (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery) (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery)

  2. Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children, Carshalton, Surrey, UK

    H. Julian G. Bloom (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery) (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery)

  3. St.Peter’s Group of Urological Hospitals, London, UK

    H. Julian G. Bloom (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery) (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery)

  4. St. George’s Hospital, London, England

    H. Julian G. Bloom (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery) (Vice-Chairman, Consultant Radiotherapist, Hon. Consultant Radiotherapist (Neurosurgery)

  5. Department of Paediatrics, Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Jean Lemerle

  6. First Paediatric Hospital, Augsburg, Federal Republic of Germany

    Malte K. Neidhardt (Chief) (Chief)

  7. Department of Paediatric Oncology, Emmakinderziekenhuis and Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Paul A. Voûte

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© 1975 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Miller, R.W. (1975). Aetiology and Epidemiology. In: Bloom, H.J.G., Lemerle, J., Neidhardt, M.K., Voûte, P.A. (eds) Cancer in Children. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96258-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-96258-5_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-07261-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-96258-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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