Environmental exposures and oesophageal cancer incidence on the island of Ireland: Identifying novel prevention opportunities

Rachel McMenemy

Rachel is MSc student appointed by the All-Ireland Cancer Research Network (AllCaN) Programme. Rachel is working under the supervision of Dr. Dan Middleton and Prof. Helen Coleman at Queen’s University Belfast.

This project will explore the geospatial incidence of oesophageal cancer alongside environmental exposures such as drinking water quality, deprivation, and urban environment. Cases will be identified using cancer registry data which will be combined, by postcode, to underlying environmental maps. Comparisons will be made to suitable population-based controls, retrieved from the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing (NICOLA) and will be matched by sex and age. This study aims to increase the understanding of environmental exposures and oesophageal cancer. An important branch of cancer surveillance is the analysis of spatial trends in cancer incidence as investigations of geographical patterns of disease can drive hypothesis generation regarding possible environmental risk factors, informing new prevention opportunities.