CANCER MORTALITY AMONG POLISH MIGRANTS TO AUSTRALIA

This paper investigates the risk of cancer in Polish migrants to Austr alia, and compares the results with earlier studies, as well as with r esults of studies of Polish migrants in other countries. Poisson regre ssion models were used to estimate the risk of death in Polish migrant s, relative to the Australia-born, as well as the relative risk of can cer in Poland compared to the Australia-born. In migrant males, a sign ificantly lower risk was found for oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, me lanoma, prostate and Hodgkin's disease, while a significantly elevated risk was found for stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney and thyroid gland . In migrant females, a risk significantly lower than in Australian-bo rn individuals was found for oral cavity, colon, melanoma, breast and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Relative risk significantly higher than in Aus tralia-born was detected for stomach, gall bladder, pancreas, cervix u teri, nervous system and thyroid gland. For some of these cancers, the risk in migrants approximates to that of the Australia-born with incr easing duration of stay. Thus, there are progressive increases in risk for colon cancer in males, and breast cancer and melanoma in females, and decreases in risk for stomach and bladder cancers in males, and u terine cancers in females.