Atlas of Cancer Mortality
Abstract
The geographic patterns of cancer around the world and within
countries have provided important clues to the causes of cancer.
In the mid-1970s the National Cancer Institute prepared county-based
and state economic area(SEA)-based maps of cancer mortality during
1950-69 in the United States that identified distinctive variations
for specific tumors, thus prompting a series of analytic studies of
cancer in high-risk areas of the country. This new Atlas of Cancer
Mortality in the United States utilizes 1950-94 mortality data from
the National Center for Health Statistics and population estimates
from the Census Bureau. Rates per 100,000 person-years, directly
standardized using the 1970 U.S. population, are calculated by race
(whites, blacks) and sex for 40 forms of cancer. The Atlas includes
more than 250 computerized color-coded maps showing variations in
cancer rates during 1970-94 and compares them with corresponding
maps for 1950-69. Summary tables and figures are also presented.
Accompanying text describes the observed variations for specific
cancers and suggests explanations based in part on the risk factors
identified by analytic studies stimulated by the earlier atlases.
The updated maps show that the patterns previously observed for
several cancers have persisted, such as the broad stretches of high
rates for cancers of the breast, colon, and rectum in the Northeast,
although the regional variation has diminished somewhat as rates
have risen in many areas of the South. For some tumors, the
geographic clustering of areas with elevated rates has become more
pronounced in the recent time period, as shown for cancers of the
corpus uteri, prostate, bladder, and biliary tract. For lung cancer,
there have been remarkable changes in the geographic patterns
corresponding to regional/temporal variations in smoking trends by
sex and race, with the recent emergence of high mortality rates
among white men across the South, among white women in the far
western states, and among blacks in northern urban areas. The
updated geographic patterns should help in formulating etiologic
and other hypotheses, and in targeting high-risk populations for
further epidemiologic research and cancer control interventions.
Suggested Citation
Devesa SS, Grauman DG, Blot WJ, Pennello G, Hoover RN, Fraumeni JF Jr. Atlas of cancer
mortality in the United States, 1950-94. Washington, DC: US Govt Print Off; 1999 [NIH Publ No.
(NIH) 99-4564].
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