Molecular cancer epidemiology can predict risk

EDITOR,—The pioneering epidemiological studies by Richard Doll and colleagues on the links between cigarette smoking and a wide variety of cancers provide the strongest evidence for a link between environmental exposure and induction of cancer.1 It has come to our notice that the range of cancers induced by cigarette smoking could have been predicted by use of the new research techniques of molecular cancer epidemiology. This studies the molecular changes in people as …