Cancer mortality in the 30s foretells cancer of the 80s in Louisiana.
Examination of secular trends suggests that the high cancer mortality rates of the 1980s could have been foretold by the excessive rates in the 1930s in Louisiana. Those same sites which were excessive in the 1930s, reflecting exposure to risk factors in the early 1900s, still predominate in the 1980s. Because of the poor survival associated with lung cancer and the increase in smoking, the increase in lung cancer had the greatest impact on the mortality trend in the all sites combined category. The stability of the cancer problem and the lack of progress in reducing cancer over the last 50 years is seen as a harbinger of the cancer problem over the next 50 years.
Craig
J F
JF
Louisiana Tumor Registry, Office of Public Health, Dept of Health and Hospitals.
Chen
V W
VW
Fontham
E T
ET
Ballinger
T
T
Correa
P
P
D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history / Q000401:mortality*; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate