title: Black-white differences in cancer risk in Harare, Zimbabwe, during 1991-2010.
abstract: Data from 20 years of cancer registration in Harare (Zimbabwe) are used to investigate the risk of cancer in the white population of the city (of European origin), relative to that in blacks (of African origin). In the absence of information on the respective populations-at-risk, we calculated odds of each major cancer among all cancers, and took the odds ratios of whites to blacks. Some major differences reflect obvious phenotypic differences (the very high incidence of skin cancer-melanoma and nonmelanoma--in the white population), whereas others (high rates of liver cancer, Kaposi sarcoma and conjunctival cancers in blacks) are the result of differences in exposure to infectious agents. Of particular interest are cancers related to lifestyle factors, and how the differences in risk are changing over time, as a result of evolving lifestyles. Thus, the high risk of cancers of the esophagus and cervix uteri in blacks (relative to whites) and colorectal cancers in whites show little change over time. Conversely, the odds of breast cancer, on average four times higher in whites than blacks, has shown a significant decrease in the differential over time. Cancer of the prostate, with the odds initially (1991-1997) 15% higher in whites had become 33% higher in blacks by 2004-2010.
authors.affiliation: Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chokunonga
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Windridge
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sasieni
authors.affiliation: Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borok
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: D Maxwell
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Parkin
mesh_terms: D044383:Black People; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk; D044465:White People; D015030:Zimbabwe / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology
keywords: Africa; cancer; ethnic differences