AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS – CURRENT CONCEPTS AND ADVANCES FROM BEDSIDE TO MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS

Cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths in the industrialized world (World Health Organization [WHO], 2004) and the second leading cause of death in Germany (Federal Statistical Office of Germany [DeStatis], 2007). It has been demonstrated that migrant cancer incidence and mortality differs in general from cancer patterns in the respective host population. Cancer is known to have a long latency period between exposure and disease onset. Important exposure factors can be traced back to childhood and young adulthood. This means short and medium term cancer mortality among first generation migrants is mainly influenced by country-of-origin factors (Parkin & Khlat, 1996)....