CANCER SURVIVAL IN KHON-KAEN PROVINCE, THAILAND

Thailand is one of the few developing countries for which population-b ased cancer survival data are available. Using clinical follow-up info rmation and reply-paid postal enquiries, 10,333 residents of Khon Kaen province registered with cancer in the period 1985-1992 were followed -up to the end of 1993. The sites of the most common cancers in the pr ovince were liver (5-year relative survival rate 9.2%), cervix (60.1%) , lung (15.4%), breast (48.1%) and large bowel (41.9%). Results for Kh on Kaen were compared with age-standardized survival data for the US a nd Scotland. Survival was consistently higher for US whites compared t o Khon Kaen residents for those cancers whose prognosis is associated with early diagnosis (breast, cervix and large bowel) or the availabil ity of intensive therapy (leukaemia and lymphoma). The main implicatio n of these results for cancer control in Thailand is that the interven tions of greatest potential benefit are those designed to promote earl y detection. More than one-third of all cancers in Thailand are liver tumours: primary prevention through control of hepatitis-B infection a nd liver fluke infestation is the only effective strategy for their co ntrol. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.