Declining mortality rates for cancer of the rectum in the United States: 1940-1985.
METHODS
Age-standardized and age-specific mortality rates for cancer of the rectum and cancer of the colon were calculated according to race and gender for 1940-1985; age-standardized rates were calculated according to geographic region for 1950-1980.


RESULTS
Mortality rates for cancer of the rectum decreased among white and black people of each gender, in most age categories and all regions of the country. Concurrent with this decline, mortality rates for cancer of the colon increased among all race-gender groups except white females, among whom it decreased.


CONCLUSIONS
The decline in mortality rates for cancer of the rectum has been largely unappreciated. When deaths occurring from 1940 to 1985 from cancer of the rectum are combined with those from cancer of the colon, mortality rates are increased. However, this combination of sites obscures the divergent trends, which suggest that these cancers have causes that are at least somewhat different.
Funkhouser
E
E
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama, Birmingham 35294.
Cole
P
P
D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People