@article{72f8a7a67c9747e0aeab8847fe098d3b,
title = "Combining three cohorts of world trade center rescue/recovery workers for assessing cancer incidence and mortality",
abstract = "Three cohorts including the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), the World Trade Center Health Registry (WTCHR), and the General Responder Cohort (GRC), each funded by the World Trade Center Health Program have reported associations between WTC-exposures and cancer. Results have generally been consistent with effect estimates for excess incidence for all cancers ranging from 6 to 14% above background rates. Pooling would increase sample size and de-duplicate cases between the cohorts. However, pooling required time consuming steps: obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals and legal agreements from entities involved; establish-ing an honest broker for managing the data; de-duplicating the pooled cohort files; applying to State Cancer Registries (SCRs) for matched cancer cases; and finalizing analysis data files. Obtaining SCR data use agreements ranged from 6.5 to 114.5 weeks with six states requiring >20 weeks. Records from FDNY (n = 16,221), WTCHR (n = 29,372), and GRC (n = 33,427) were combined de-duplicated resulting in 69,102 unique individuals. Overall, 7894 cancer tumors were matched to the pooled cohort, increasing the number cancers by as much as 58% compared to previous analyses. Pooling resulted in a coherent resource for future research for studies on rare cancers and mortality, with more representative of occupations and WTC-exposure.",
keywords = "Cancer, Exposure, Pooling cohorts, Rescue and recovery workers, World Trade Center",
author = "Brackbill, {Robert M.} and Kahn, {Amy R.} and Jiehui Li and Rachel Zeig-Owens and Goldfarb, {David G.} and Molly Skerker and Farfel, {Mark R.} and Cone, {James E.} and Janette Yung and Walker, {Deborah J.} and Adrienne Solomon and Baozhen Qiao and Schymura, {Maria J.} and Dasaro, {Christopher R.} and Dana Kristjansson and Webber, {Mayris P.} and Lucchini, {Roberto G.} and Todd, {Andrew C.} and Prezant, {David J.} and Paolo Boffetta and Hall, {Charles B.}",
note = "Funding Information: The current project, “Incidence, Latency, and Survival after World Trade Center Exposure,” was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2016 to establish the “Combined WTC Rescue/recovery Cohort” (the combined Cohort), a study population that includes rescue/recovery workers from the three cohorts described above. The overall aim of the project was to pool and de-duplicate data from three cohorts (FDNY, WTCHR, and GRC) for joint research on cancer incidence, latency and survival. The study design called for use of identical case ascertainment methods across the cohorts using state cancer registries; it also called for collaboration with the New York State Cancer Registry to manage and coordinate data pooling, and linking pooled data to 13 SCRs, ensure data security and confidentiality, and to harmonize data formats. There was also agreement to use a common exposure metric in the analysis. Funding Information: lection of cancer incidence data used in this study was supported by the California Department of Public Health pursuant to California Health and Safety Code Section 103885; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention{\textquoteright}s (CDC) National Program of Cancer Registries, under cooperative agreement 5NU58DP006344; the National Cancer Institute{\textquoteright}s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program under contract HHSN261201800032I awarded to the University of California, San Francisco, contract HHSN261201800015I awarded to the University of Southern California, and contract HHSN261201800009I awarded to the Public Health Institute. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the State of California, Department of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or their Contractors and Subcontractors.”; “The Connecticut Department of Public Health Human Investigations Committee approved this research project, which used data obtained from the Connecticut Department of Public Health. The Connecticut Department of Public Health does not endorse or assume any responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions based on the data. The [author, presenter, researcher] assumes full responsibility for all such analyses, interpretations and conclusions.”; “The Florida cancer incidence data used in this report were collected by the Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS), the statewide cancer registry funded by the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Program of Cancer Registries (CDC-NPCR). The views expressed herein are solely those of the author(s) and not necessarily reflect those of the DOH or CDC-NPCR”; This work is supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention{\textquoteright}s National Program of Cancer Registries through cooperative agreement 5NU58DP006309 awarded to the New York State Department of Health. This work is also supported by NIOSH and by the New York State Department of Health. The contents are solely the responsibility of the New York State Department of Health and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; “Cancer incidence data used in these analyses were obtained from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS), Ohio Department of Health (ODH), a cancer registry partially support by the National Program of Cancer Registries at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through Cooperative Agreement Number NU58DP006284. Use of these data does not imply that ODH or CDC agrees or disagrees with the analyses, interpretations or conclusions in this report (or publication/presentation).”; “These data were supplied by the Bureau of Health Statistics & Registries, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Health specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions.”; The Texas State Department of Health shall be credited as the source of the data. In addition, no statement may be made indicating or suggesting that interpretations drawn from DSHS program data are those of those programs. Funding Information: All three study cohorts—FDNY, WTCHR and the GRC—are programs funded by the NIOSH World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP). The federal WTCHP supports 9/11-related research as well as medical monitoring and treatment for 9/11-certified medical conditions for rescue/recovery workers at clinical sites, including FDNY and ISMMS, and treatment for non-rescue/recovery workers at WTCHP clinical sites. Funding Information: Funding: This research was supported through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) cooperative agreements (U01OH011315, U01 OH011932, U01 OH011681, U01 OH011931, U01 OH011480, and U50/OH009739) and contracts (200-2011-39378, 200-2017-93325 and 200-2017-93326). Additionally: this research was supported cooperative agreement 6NU58DP006309 awarded to the New York State Department of Health by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and by Contract 75N91018D00005 (Task Order 75N91018F00001) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. This research was also supported by cooperative agreement U50/ATU272750 from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), CDC, which included support from the National Center for Environmental Health, CDC; and by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH). This research was also supported by grant P30 CA013330 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",
year = "2021",
month = feb,
day = "2",
doi = "10.3390/ijerph18041386",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "18",
pages = "1--17",
journal = "International journal of environmental research and public health",
issn = "1661-7827",
publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",
number = "4",
}
