Standard information on environmental exposure linked to data on cancer patients, with a brief review of the literature

A review of national resources presently available for linking cancer morbidity and mortality data with information on environmental factors is presented. Additional sources of data on exposure, obtained directly from the patient or from his/her hospital record, are discussed. At the patient level, an interview questionnaire records standardized data on residential and occupational experiences and on a variety of life-style factors such as smoking, alcohol, nutrition, medication, and exercise. At the hospital level, a simple model "exposure registry" is presented which, at minimal cost, would facilitate the collection of limited data on smoking and employment (occupation/business) from the in-patient hospital admission form and from the medical and nursing notes in the patient's record. Both of these instruments represent efforts toward the development of standardized data sets on environmental and personal exposures which would constitute valuable additions to data already collected by the worldwide network of cancer registries.