[Estimation of cancer incidence in France]

National cancer incidence rates are not available in most countries. An estimation of the national cancer incidence from regional incidence data in France is proposed here. National cancer incidence rates (1978-1982) were estimated from the incidence and the mortality observed during the same period in five French departments with a cancer registry and from national mortality data. The cancer registries used for this estimation are: Bas-Rhin, Calvados, Côte-d'Or, Doubs and Isère. The estimation was performed assuming that, for a given cancer site, sex and age group, the mortality/morbidity ratio is the same in the aggregate of the five departments and in France as Crude, age-specific and standardised on world population incidence rates were estimated for the most frequent cancer sites and for each sex. An estimation of the annual number of cases in France between 1978 and 1982 for the main cancer sites is also given.