The gradient was largest at the moment of diagnosis. The odds ratio was 3.4 for supervisors, 7.8 for operations staff and 14.8 for production staff. There was a socioeconomic gradient in lung cancer at all points in the career and in the incidence of the hematopoietic system cancers at mid-career and at diagnosis. No association between socioeconomic status and colon cancer was found. Social mobility accentuated all these results.
Socioeconomic status is involved in the development of cancers.