This project conducts a variety of descriptive epidemiologic studies to quantify the incidence of and mortality from cancer; to investigate variations in cancer rates by demographic factors; to examine temporal trends and geographic patterns; and to identify leads for further analytical research. In conjunction with our effort to produce national maps of cancer mortality rates, we are examining national mortality rates for 40 cancers by race, gender, and age. We analyzed the descriptive epidemiology for cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, biliary tract, breast, cervix, testis, bladder, and kidney, as well as for leukemia, among the elderly, and among various racial/ethnic groups. Investigation of leukemia patterns showed that incidence rates were higher among whites than blacks for three out of the four main types, whereas chronic myeloid leukemia rates were higher among blacks than whites. Incidence declined for all types except acute lymphoid leukemia, for which rates increased among all four race/sex groups. In our investigation of urinary tract cancer cases who died, we found that the accuracy and representativeness of the mortality data varied by anatomic site within the urinary tract, race, sex, cause of death, age and stage at diagnosis, and length of survival. An analysis of breast cancer mortality patterns by socioeconomic group found that the previously seen positive relationship between breast cancer mortality and education was found among U.S. women of color but not non-Hispanic white women. We are analyzing the incidence data for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma according to histologic type; esophageal and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma trends; oral cavity and pharynx cancer by subsite and histologic type; colorectal cancer by subsite, age, and stage; and thyroid carcinomas by histologic type. Our collaborators from Shanghai, China, brought updated incidence data that we are analyzing together. A report presenting the largest series to date on Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia incidence is being prepared.
