CANCER MORTALITY IN ITALY, 1992

Background: Data and statistics are presented on cancer death certific ation in Italy, updating previous publications covering the period 195 5-1991. Methods: Data for 1992 subdivided into 30 cancer sites are pre sented in 8 tables, including age- and sex-specific absolute and perce ntage frequencies of cancer deaths, and crude, age-specific and age-st andardized rates, at all ages and truncated for the 35-64 year age gro up. Male to female ratios have also been tabulated, and trends in age- standardized rates for major cancer sites plotted from 1955 to 1992. R esults: Age-adjusted death certification rates (on the world standard population) for all neoplasms declined from 193.4 in 1991 to 189.8/100 ,000 males in 1992, and from 100.1 to 99.5/100,000 females. The favora ble trends were even more marked in middle and younger age, but not in children below age 15, whose overall age-standardized cancer mortalit y rates were higher in 1992 than in 1989. Lung cancer was by far the l eading site of cancer mortality, with over 30,700 deaths. For the four th subsequent year, its rates in males declined, to reach 57.0/100,000 , but continued to rise in females, to reach 8.0/100,000. Rates for ot her major cancer sites (intestines, stomach, female breast, prostate, pancreas) were stable or moderately favorable, but some increase was a pparent also in 1992 for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma death rates. Conclusio ns: Italian cancer mortality rates in 1992 were moderately favorable, with the major exception of the persistent spread of the tobacco-relat ed lung cancer epidemic in females.