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The purpose of this study was to estimate the national prevalence of childhood asthma and other allergic diseases in Korea, and to determine potential risk factors for the diseases. Stratified random samples of 42,886 were selected from 34 elementary (6-12 yr olds) and 34 middle schools (12-15 yr olds) nationwide, and 38,955 were in the final analysis. The Korean-translated modified version of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional survey. Twelve-month prevalences of the symptoms of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and flexural eczema were 8.7%, 10.5%, 7.3% in 6-12 yr olds, and 8.2%, 10.0%, 3.9% in 12-15 yr olds, respectively. For allergic conjunctivitis, food allergy, and drug allergy, the prevalences in 6-12 yr olds were 11.2%, 6.5%, and 1.5%, respectively. Asthma and flexural eczema decreased significantly with age. Other significant risk factors were also noted. For 6-12 yr-old asthma, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of body mass index was 1.21 with 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-1.48, aOR of passive smoking was 1.37 with 95%CI 1.24-1.51, aOR of carpet use was 1.28 with 95%CI 1.10-1.49. For 6-12 yr-old eczema, aOR of affluence was 1.22 with 95%CI 1.07-1.39. The control of obesity and passive smoking would be the most important preventive measures of allergic diseases.

It has been suggested that colorectal cancer might not be one homogenous disease entity, based on the distinctive characteristics of its subsite of origin. Incidence data on 4,987 colorectal cancer were obtained from the Seoul Cancer Registry between 1993 and 1995. Age, sex, and subsite-specific incidence rates were compared. The age-standardized annual incidence rates of total colorectal cancer were 26.1 and 18.0 per 100,000 for men and women, respectively. There were no appreciable difference in the rates of colon and rectal cancer for either sex (colon vs rectum: 12.8 vs. 13.2 for men, 9.3 vs. 8.6 for women). The incidence rate of right colon was slightly higher in men than in women, and this discrepancy became even greater in left colon (men vs women: 3.5 vs. 3.0 for right colon, 4.7 vs. 2.9 for left colon). When the incidence rate of right colon was compared with that of left colon, women had a higher rate in the right colon among the elderly, aged 60 yr and over and a lower rate at age 40 yr or less, while the opposite was observed for men. More analytic approaches are needed to identify which factors are related with these descriptive results in colorectal cancer incidence.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Korea. The aim of this study was to estimate lung cancer risk of cigarette smoking in Korean men by a 10-yr follow-up prospective cohort study using the primary databases. The number of subjects was 14,272 men, who had full information of smoking habits among par- ticipants in the Seoul Male Cancer Cohort Study (SMCC). Total 125,053 person- years were calculated by determining the number of days from the start of follow- up, January 1, 1993, until the date of lung cancer diagnosis, death from another cause, or the end of follow-up, December 31, 2002, followed by converting the num- ber of days to years. The information of outcome was obtained by the database of Korea Central Cancer Registry, Seoul Regional Cancer Registry, and Korea Sta- tistical Office. The relative risk (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) values of smoking were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression stratified on potential confounders. During the follow-up periods, 78 cases of lung cancer occurr- ed. The cigarette smoking is the major risk factor and increases the 4.18-fold risk of lung cancer in Korean men. In order to control lung cancer, intervention of quit- ting smoking is needed.

The relative risk (RR) of smoking and mortality of lung cancer in British doctors was previously reported to have increased throughout a 40-yr period. Here, we evaluated this RR based on the incidence of lung cancer in Korean men using a longer follow-up period. We compared our data to the RR reported in a study using a 10-yr follow-up period; the subjects and methods were identical to those of the previous paper with the exception of the follow-up period, which ended on December 31, 2008. We found that the RR of smoking habits in patients with lung cancer did not increase, and that the data showed narrowing 95% confidence intervals over a longer observation in Korean men. Estimated lung cancers attributable to smoking were 55.6%. These results highlight the need for an intervention program to help patients quit smoking in Korea.

This article presents the results of the Implementation Study of the Seoul Cancer Registry, which started in July, 1991 as a population based cancer registry in Seoul, Korea. The completeness and validity of the registered data were evaluated using Mortality/Incidence ratio (M/I ratio), Histologically Verified Cases (HV%), Primary Site Uncertain (PSU%), and Age Unknown (Age UNK%). Owing to the additional active surveillance, the completeness of the data turned out to be fairly acceptable, except for the aged over 75(Mortality/Incidence ratio was over 100%). Eventhough the Seoul cancer registry(SCR) has further way to go in the completeness especially among elderly persons, the validity of SCR data was also acceptable in terms of HV%, PSU%, and Age UNK%. However, PSU% and Age UNK% might need to be further reduced to be comparable with other well established cancer registries. The age standardized incidence rates(ASR) of all cancers between July 1, 1991 and June 30, 1992 were 232.4/100,000 in males and 147.9/100,000 in females. The top five major sites of cancers in Seoul were the stomach, liver, lung, colo-rectum, and bladder in order in males, and the uterine cervix, stomach, breast, colo-rectum, and liver in females. Those 5 cancer sites comprised 68.9% and 64.7% of the total cancer incidence in males and females, respectively.