Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- The results of an epidemiological study that is the centerpiece of the five-year childhood cancer investigation here are scheduled to be released Dec. 18, a state epidemiologist said last night.
Speaking at a meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, Dr. Jerald A. Fagliano of the state Department of Health and Senior Services said all data analyses have been completed.
"Despite all that's going on, we are on target to release the epi study and a final report on the study on Dec. 18," Fagliano said.
He added that the study is on target in spite of the recent anthrax cases and the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, which have strained the resources of the state Health Department.
A draft epidemiological study was sent in early September to an expert panel of six scientists who have been working with researchers for years on the design and format of the study, to get their critique and input.
The draft study was also sent for critique to a set of peer reviewers selected by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the federal agency that has been working with the state Health Department to complete the study.
Fagliano, who is overseeing the epidemiological study, said researchers are in the process of responding to the comments made by expert reviewers. He said the Dec. 18 date could be changed, but "only by a day or two."
Federal and state health officials are attempting to discover why incidences of leukemia, brain and central nervous system cancers are higher in Dover than elsewhere. Researchers have interviewed 40 families of children with brain and central nervous system cancers and leukemia who developed cancer while living in Dover from 1979 to 1996.
They have also interviewed 159 "control group families," or families of children who did not develop the disease, in an attempt to find differences between the two groups of families.
Published on October 30, 2001
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