A design for cancer case-control studies using only incident cases: Experience with the GEM study of melanoma

C Begg; AJ Hummer; U Mujumdar; BK Armstrong; A Kricker; LD Marrett; RC Millikan; SB Gruber; H Anton Culver; R Zanetti; RP Gallagher; T Dwyer; TR Rebbeck; K Busam; L From; M Berwick; P Roy; R Canchola; B Clas; J Cotignola; Y Monroe; M Litchfield; P Tucker; N Stephens; T Switzer; B Theis; N Chowdhury; L Vanasse; M Purdue; D Northrup; S Rosso; C Sacerdote; N Leighton; M Gildea; J Bonner; J Jeter; J Klotz; H Wilcox; H Weiss; N Thomas; D Mattingly; J Player; CK Tse; P Kanetsky; A Walker; S Panossian; H Mohrenweiser; R Setlow

Journal article

A design for cancer case-control studies using only incident cases: Experience with the GEM study of melanoma

C Begg, AJ Hummer, U Mujumdar, BK Armstrong, A Kricker, LD Marrett, RC Millikan, SB Gruber, H Anton Culver, R Zanetti, RP Gallagher, T Dwyer, TR Rebbeck, K Busam, L From, M Berwick, P Roy, R Canchola, B Clas, J Cotignola Show all

International Journal of Epidemiology | Published : 2006

DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyl044

Abstract

Background: The population-based case-control study is not suited to the evaluation of rare genetic (or environmental) factors. The use of a novel case-control design in which cases have second primaries and controls are cancer survivors has been proposed for this purpose. Methods: We report results from an international study of melanoma that involved population-based ascertainment of incident cases of second or subsequent primary melanoma as the 'case' group and incident cases of first primary melanoma as the 'control' group. We evaluate the validity of the study design by comparing the results obtained for phenotypic factors that have been shown consistently to be associated with melanoma..

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