Is Cancer Mortality Increasing or Decreasing?

Is gallbladder cancer decreasing in view of increasing laparoscopic cholecystectomy?

BACKGROUND Gallstone disease affects over 20 million people in the U.S. and is a major risk factor for gallbladder cancer (GBC). In 1988, a less invasive, low-cost procedure, laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), was introduced and became the standard of care for management of gallstones. METHODS GBC incidence (1973-2007) and mortality rates (1969-2006) were calculated using SEER Program data. L...

Is Disease Increasing or Decreasing, and Does It Impact or Maintain Biodiversity?

,\KSTRI\CT: Disease is a growing concern in conservation biology. Alteration to habitats can favor intermediate ho.sts such as mosquitoes. Stress may increasc susceptibility to infectious diseasc. Alterations to trophic cascades can indirectly favor the cmergence of diseases on Ihose spccies tiwi increase in abundance. Most notably. pathogen pollution. by introduced species. can expose hosts to...

Is asthma mortality increasing?

Explosive evolutionary radiations: decreasing speciation or increasing extinction through time?

A common pattern in time-calibrated molecular phylogenies is a signal of rapid diversification early in the history of a radiation. Because the net rate of diversification is the difference between speciation and extinction rates, such "explosive-early" diversification could result either from temporally declining speciation rates or from increasing extinction rates through time. Distinguishing...

Are socioeconomic inequalities in mortality decreasing or increasing within some British regions? An observational study, 1990-1998.

BACKGROUND This paper evaluates claims in a recent study that inequalities in small area mortality rates have lessened. We examine the effect of differently estimated populations on time trends in age-specific mortality rates for Yorkshire and the Humber and East of England. METHODS Populations were estimated for wards using four methods that introduce increasing amounts of information. Age-s...