As the body of research investigating the carcinogenic properties of individual substances increases, the need to an overview of the whole literature will increase in importance, this paper indicates. While the authors recognise the value of these “meta-analyses” in occupational cancer studies, they emphasise the continued importance of critical narrative reviews of all data by expert researchers at groups such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Lead author Kurt Straif is employed by IARC.

Kurt Straif, Leslie Stayner, Paul Demers, and Philip Landrigan. Use of meta-analyses by IARC Working Groups, Environmental Health Perspectives, volume 120.9, A342-A343, September 2012.