[Descriptive epidemiological study of malignant neoplasms in the Semipalatinsk district of the Kazakh S.S.R]

The age-specific morbidity rates for all types of malignant tumors have been shown to be higher among the residents in the Semipalatinsk Region than in the general population of the Soviet Union, which is primarily due to the incidence of esophageal cancer which in males and females exceeds that in the general USSR's population. There is a tendency to increasing morbidity due to lung, rectum, and breast cancers. The morbidity due to malignant tumors of lymphatic and hemopoietic tissues was lower in the Semipalatinsk Region in 1970 than that in Kazakhstan and in the USSR, but in 1985 it was similar to that in the USSR and higher than in Kazakhstan. It is necessary to make an epidemiological survey to detect the etiological factors responsible for an increase in the morbidity due to tumors of this site in the area.