contents.txt                                   13 October 1999

      FILES RELATED TO RERF LIVER CANCER INCIDENCE DATA

These files include detailed tabulations and documentation of
the data used in the analyses of LSS liver cancer incidence for
the period from 1958-1987, as reported in the paper by Cologne
et al (Radiation Research 152:364-73,1999).

Data file       Description

LIVER_99.DAT    LSS liver cancer incidence data set

Documentation
DOCUMENT.TXT    Documentation for the data file
CONTENTS.TXT    Descriptions for all of the files

Sample analysis
script file
LIVER_99.SCR    Script file for reading
                and analyzing LIVER_99.DAT

Sample analysis
log file
LIVER_99.LOG    Log file of LIVER_99.SCR

The data set is a detailed tabulation of person years,
case counts, and summary data constructed from data on
120,321 members of the Life Span Study cohort of
individual survivors. Among these, there were 111,932
persons who were alive and had never been diagnosed with
cancer as of January 1, 1958; these persons comprise the
data in the file LIVER_99.DAT. This includes survivors
with DS86 shielded kerma estimates greater than 4 Gy
and persons with unknown dose, as well as persons who
were not in city at the time of the bombings. The data
set is structured to make it easy to exclude these
persons as was done in the published report.

The liver cancer data set is based on data obtained from
the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tumor registries together with
LSS mortality follow-up and autopsy data. Since the tumor
registries did not start operation until 1958, follow-up
is limited to the period from 1958 to 1987. A pathology
review was undertaken after collecting all available
clinical records and tissue specimens; this allowed a more
consistent set of diagnostic standards, as well as the
opportunity to estimate the proportion of true positive
diagnoses of primary liver cancer among the large number
of cases identified by death certificate only. (This was
done by analyzing the results of the pathology review for
cases with liver cancer as cause of death, when materials
other than death certificate were available for review.)

As in other analyses of cancer incidence among atomic-
bomb survivors (e.g. Thompson et al, Cancer Incidence
Part II: Solid Tumors, Radiation Research 137,
Suppl.:11-67, 1994), case counts are limited to first
primary cancers diagnosed in the registry catchment areas
and person-years are adjusted for migration out of the
catchment areas.

Each record in the main data files includes indicators of
sex, city, organ dose category, age-at-exposure category,
calendar time period, and other factors. The basic data for
each record in these tables include: person years, migration
adjusted person years, the number of people entering the
study, mean values of attained age, age at exposure, time
since exposure, and year. Doses are summarized by the mean
values of the gamma and neutron organ doses and the mean RBE
10 weighted total liver dose (i.e. gamma dose plus ten times
the neutron dose).

The data set has 23,597 records. The file is ASCII text
in which the records have a fixed format and fields are
separated by blanks so that it can easily be read into
spreadsheets or other data analysis programs.

In addition to detailed documentation of the content of
the data file, an EPICURE command script and log file for
fitting the basic model used in the analyses for the
published report is also included.

If these data are used as the basis for analyses in any
publication or presentation, including working papers,
technical reports, and in-house seminars, a statement
of acknowledgment must be included in the manuscript
or presentation. This statement should read:

     This report makes use of data obtained from the Radiation Effects
     Research Foundation (RERF), Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. RERF
     is a private, non-profit foundation funded by the Japanese Ministry
     of Health, Labour and Welfare and the U.S. Department of Energy
     the latter through the National Academy of Sciences. The conclusions
     in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily
     reflect the scientific judgment of RERF or its funding agencies.


Please send a copy of any reprints which make use of
these data to:

          Archives Unit, Library and Archives Section
          Information Technology Department
          Radiation Effects Research Foundation
          5-2 Hijiyama Koen
          Minami-ku
          Hiroshima Shi 732-0815  JAPAN