DIGESTIVE ORGANS

Cancers of the digestive organs and peritoneum constituted 28% of all cancers in Denmark in 1943-87. The lack of a common trend in incidence rates for the different tumour types indicates different aetiologies. Survival is worst for cancer of the oesophagus and improves gradually for cancer of the stomach, cancer of the small intestine and colorect al cancers. Survival from these tumours differ little between the sexe s, but females have a slightly more favourable prognosis, which is mos t pronounced for sites with the best survival. The changes in survival over the study period, 1943-87, show virtually no change in the progn osis for oesophageal cancer, very slight, if any, improvement in that for stomach cancer, a detectable improvement in survival from cancer o f the small intestine and substantial improvements in survival from co lorectal cancer. Survival rates after colorectal cancer appear to be l ower in Denmark than those seen in the USA. This finding may be due to the exclusion of certain precancerous lesions from the Danish materia l, which is not possible in US studies. Cancers of the liver, gallblad der and pancreas all carry extremely high mortality rates, with five-y ear survival rates below 5%, and one-year survival rates below 5% for cancers of the liver and pancreas.