CANCER INCIDENCE

Sassari Cancer Registry 1992/94

Incidence data, rates per 100,000 population and standardized rates are calculated with reference to the 1992-94 cumulative values, for both women and men.

In Sassari Province, 5,636 cases of cancer were recorded in the years 1992-94: 2,419 (43%) were women and 3,217 (57%) men. The male to female ratio was 1.3:1, lower than the national one, which is 2:1. This low male to female ratio would seem to mean that no particular environmental or occupational influences can condition cancer development in different subjects, as regional studies demonstrate.

In women, all the ages are concerned; cancer is rare till thirty (39 cases, 2.7%) and - when it occurs - affects mainly the lymphohematopoiesis system (13 cases), the CNS (Central Nervous System) and the endocrine glands (8 and 14 cases, respectively); cancer is rarer or absent in other sites. It gets more frequent over forty and breast is the most affected (596 cases) before non-melanoma skin cancer (362 cases).

All the ages are concerned in men, too. Cancer is rare till thirty-five; under this age, 105 cancers occurred (among 3,217 cases) and the limphohematopoiesis system was the most affected (33 cases) before testis (16 cases) and endocrine glands (14 cases). In particular, it is necessary to point out that cancer of the testis is the most frequent in men between twenty and thirty-five years of age (13 cases) and corresponds to 18%. In this age bracket, cancer is less frequent or absent in other sites.

Histologic and cytologic diagnosis was available in most cases and made possible an exact morphological identification of different cancers.

Cancer cumulative risk is higher in women than in men till fifty-four years of age (68 and 60, respectively), whereas over this age it is higher in men, till both sixty-four (155 and 128) and seventy-four (405 and 272).

A comparison between Sassari Cancer Registry (SCR) incidence data and the ones collected from other italian registries - with reference to standardized rates per 100,000 population - was made by rates of some towns of Veneto (Treviso, Venice, Verona) and of Emilia-Romagna (Modena), because they published relatively new data; we had to consider Ragusa and Latina as a reference point because their registries were the only ones in Southern Italy. This comparison points out that - in both women and men - cancer pathology is higher in Northern than in Southern Italy, in Veneto and Modena Registries than in Latina and Ragusa ones.

There are some differences in specific cancers.

From a comparison among the standardized rates of the main cancers in the different national registries emerges that male stomach cancer is the rarest in the SCR, and its value is notably lower than the other ones.

Liver cancer incidence rate in SCR appears particularly high as regards the ones in the other registries. It is in the second place in women and it averages in men. This value might be in relation to the high frequency of C hepatitis, which is frequent in Sardinia; however, in our opinion, this observation needs further specific and careful verifications.