ABSTRACT
An individualized cancer risk assessment or determination of what caused cancer in an individual necessarily relies on available epidemiological data that actually provide risk estimates for populations, and have limitations for use in understanding the risks for an individual within a population. It is important to consider the focus and goals of the authors for any particular document, because frequently the analysis is not aimed at providing for a causality assessment in an individual. Among the reasons that population risk assessment informs little understanding about individual cancer risk, or causality, is that the risk assessment process makes a variety of interpretations and assumptions in the public health interest, and many of these are open to debate. A concurrent step for assessing causality in an individual is to confirm the diagnosis, as sometimes incorrect diagnoses are made, and so would not be appropriately related to the alleged exposure in the individual.
