Cancer incidence, mortality, and survival in the Province of Modena for the years 1988-1990 are reported, to provide a measure of the burden of cancer in our society.
Overall, 9,549 new cases have been recorded, 5,194 among men and 4,355 among women. Median age at time of diagnosis was 65 years, identical for both sex.
The incidence rate per 100,000 population (age-adjusted to the 1981 Italian census) was 594 for men and 470 for women. The cumulative risk of developing a tumor during the lifetime was 321‰ and 233‰ for men and women respectively.
Thirty-one hundred and fifty-five new cases have been recorded in 1988, 3,166 in 1989, and 3,228 in 1990. Since 1990, all cases of in-situ carcinoma of the skin have also been included among incident cases, determining an increase in the number of cases observed in the latter year. Excluding the cases of in-situ carcinoma of the skin, incident cases resulted constant over the 3-year period, accountig to 2,857 cases for 1988, 2,804 for 1989, and 2,823 for 1990.
In the Tumor Registry of the Province of Modena more than 80% of incident cases (80.2% of men and 83.6% of women) were histologically confirmed. Cases incident on the bases of death certificate only (DCO) were 312(3.3%).
Lung (1,250 new cases), breast (1,068), stomach (728), colon (667), and bladder (591) cancers were the five most frequent incident tumors, accounting for 45% of all registred cancers. Lung (1,068) and breast (1,062) cancers represent the leading causes of cancers incidence among men and women, respectively.
In the same 3-year period 2,980 men and 2,152 women died of cancer. The mortality/incidence ratio was 0.57 for men and 0.49 for women.
Lung (1119 cases ), stomach (573), prostate (200) cancers for men, and breast (379), stomach (573), and colon (378) tumors for women represented the most frequent causes of death.
For cases diagnosed during the years 1988 and 1989, survival statistics are also reported. The median survival was of 26 month for all cases, being of 41 months for patients less than 75 years old at the time of diagnosis. Women survived longer than men, and this difference was mostly dependent on the difference outcome of patients with lung (affecting men in 85% of cases) and breast (affecting women in 99% of cases) cancer.
Finally, the comparison of the standardized rates of incidence among Italian Tumor Registries, confirmed our previous finding of a substantial homogeneity between the Province of Modena and those provinces in Northen Italy with similar social, economical, and enviromental patterns.