CANCER MORTALITY IN URUGUAY 1953-1991

Cancer mortality trends from 1953 to 1991 were assessed by means of da ta supplied by the Department of Vital Statistics of the Ministry of P ublic Health. The population at risk was obtained from the Bureau of S tatistics and Censuses. Age-specific and age-adjusted mortality rates were calculated, using the world standard population, for a number of sites or groups of sites. In order to obtain relative risks of death f or each period, Poisson regression models were fitted to the data usin g the GLIM program. The main model included age and period as explanat ory variables. Among males, the principal increase was observed for lu ng cancer, followed by prostatic cancer. The rates were mainly stable in colon cancer and leukaemias, whereas gastric cancer showed a marked decline. Also, a recent decline was seen for oesophageal cancer. In f emales a steady decline in mortality was observed for all sites combin ed. Major decreases were seen for oesophageal, gastric, cervical and t otal uterine cancers. The only cancers showing significant increases w ere breast cancer, and lung cancer for the most recent period. Providi ng that there were no changes in death registration or in survival rat es, changes in prevalence of risk factors might be responsible for the observed trends. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.