Methodology

The methodology used for the CCTLP study is a rather simple design as it is just myself working on this in my spare time in between working a full time job and caring for a son with cancer. The process of finding a person who is or was diagnosed with a childhood cancer to the point it becomes a case entry in the study is as follows:

    1. Using online resources such as social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, GoFundMe) as well as news articles, obituaries, videos, etc… I find a potential case to review.
    2. Initially try to determine the person’s date of birth, gender, age at diagnosis, current city/state and parent names.
    3. If the items in Step 2 cannot be completely determined the information gets placed on another list for future review.
    4. Assuming I can find the information in Step 2 next is to locate the home where the person was living about 4-6 years prior to diagnosis.  Ewing Sarcoma in particular seems to take a few years to develop before either a tumor forms and is visible on the outside of the body or becomes painful for the individual from forming inside the body causing pain to vital organs and bones.  I use resources such as address directories publicly available online as well property appraiser websites to locate residences for a given time period.
    5. Assuming I can determine the residence I move on to the next step which is to use a US Transmission Line map which is overlayed on a street map.  From here I can determine what transmission lines are in the nearby vicinity.  If there appears to be transmission lines nearby, I use a distance tool included with the mapping application to estimate distance.  The US Transmission Line map also yields the strength and number of these lines.  This will then become a case in the study with the home address being the exposure location.
    6. If a residence cannot be located in Step 5, an attempt is made to locate the school (if it is a child/young adult) that the child was attending in the timeframe of interest.  If a school can be located, the same steps that were used in Step 5 apply to the school location.  If the transmission lines are found in the vicinity of the school a case is created with school as the exposure location.

 

  1. In Summary:
    1. If home found but no school found:
      1. If transmission lines near home, becomes a case
      2. If no transmission lines near home, placed on list to be re-reviewed at later date in hopes to find school information.
    2. If school found but no home found:
      1. If transmission lines near school, becomes a case
      2. If no transmission lines near school, placed on list to be re-reviewed at later date in hopes to find home information.
    3. If both home and school found:
      1. If transmission lines near either home or school, becomes a case.
      2. Have not found a case yet where  no transmission lines nearby either location.
    4. If child is an athlete an attempt is made to find where sports were being played
      1. This is usually difficult as there are multiple fields in a given area.
      2. Hockey generally is an easier sport to track down given smaller number of rinks in a given area.

Challenges with a study such as this:

  • Divorced parents – Hard to know who the child is living with.
  • Parents who relocate frequently – They are harder to track down where they’ve been and when they’ve moved.
  • Property appraiser websites that don’t provide complete sales history or enough detail.
  • Parents / single moms or dads who are renting.
  • Kids who are posting their own cancer journeys without any mention of parents/schools/city locations.
  • Common last names living in bigger cities.
  • Younger children in daycares.

TOTAL COST OF THIS STUDY: $0.00

 

Scroll to Top