Posterior uveal malignant melanoma: temporal stability and ethnic variation in rates in Israel

In a population-based study of posterior uveal malignant melanoma (755 incidence cases), the authors found a stabilized incidence in Israel from 1961-1996. Overall, Jewish immigrants to Israel had a relative rate (RR) of 2.2 [95% confidence interval [1.5-2.6] as compared to the reference population (Israeli-born Jews with Israel-born parents, i.e. third generation). Whereas individuals born in Eastern Europe or the Americas experienced the highest age adjusted incidence rates per million [for example; from 1972-1996, 8.3 for those from Poland, 8.2 from Romania, 6.4 from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 7.6 from the Americas], the lowest incidence rates were observed among immigrants from Algeria-Morocco-Tunisia (rate of 2.8), Iraq (1.7), Iran (3.2). Jews born in Israel exhibited incidence patterns similar to those individuals from the place of their parent's birth; high rates were observed among individuals born of American- or European-born parents (rate of 7.2), and low rates among offspring of parents who migrated from Africa or Asia (2.6). A low incidence was found among Israeli-born Arabs (2.6 in men, and 2.0 in women). The stable differences in incidence rates, according to populations of Jews, and the persistence of these variations within the descendants of these populations suggest that underlying susceptibility states are related to an individual's origin.