Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
8873051
TITLE
Accuracy of case-reported family history of melanoma in Queensland, Australia.
ABSTRACT
A positive family history is used in clinical practice as an indication of increased melanoma risk, yet there are no data on the accuracy of reported family histories of melanoma. The validity of case-reported family history of melanoma was assessed in the course of a family and twin study of melanoma in Queensland, Australia, conducted among the families of 2,118 melanoma cases diagnosed in Queensland between 1982 and 1990. A total of 913 melanoma cases made 1,267 reports of melanoma among their first-degree relatives. A total of 1,040 of these reports were checked, first through relatives themselves and then, if the relative also said they had had melanoma, through the relative's medical records. Medical confirmation of melanoma as the diagnosis was obtained for 623 reports (59.9%; 95% confidence interval 56.9-62.9): a false-positive reporting rate by cases of 40.1%. The level of false-positive reporting was lower for cases under 70 years of age, for women, for cases whose own diagnosis of melanoma was more than 5 years earlier, and for cases with three or more relatives with melanoma. Media campaigns in Queensland aimed at increasing skin cancer awareness, and confusion between melanoma and other more common actinic neoplasma (basal and squamous cell carcinomas), may partly explain the high false-positive reporting rate observed here. For this reason, It is difficult to generalize these findings to northern hemisphere populations where skin cancer is not such an important public health issue.
DATE PUBLISHED
1996 Aug
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1996/08/01
medline 1996/08/01 00:01
entrez 1996/08/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Aitken JF Aitken J F JF Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
Youl P Youl P P
Green A Green A A
MacLennan R MacLennan R R
Martin NG Martin N G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 6
ISSUE: 4
TITLE: Melanoma research
ISOABBREVIATION: Melanoma Res.
YEAR: 1996
MONTH: Aug
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0960-8931
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Melanoma Res
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0960-8931
NLMUNIQUEID: 9109623
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Case Reports
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
False Positive Reactions
Family Health
Female
Humans
Male
Medical Records
Melanoma genetics
Middle Aged genetics
Queensland genetics
Reproducibility of Results genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's