Cancer occurrence in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, 1980-86

A total of 269 pathologically confirmed carcinoma cases (118 male, 151 female) were recorded in the seven year period 1980 to 1986 in Vanuatu, an island nation within the Melanesia region in the South Pacific. Cervical cancer was numerically the most important malignancy in females (25% of all female cancers). In males, liver cancer was the most commonly observed (14.4% of all male cancers). Almost one-half (44.4%) of the available paraffin blocks from liver carcinoma cases (18 cases) demonstrated positivity of HBV antigens in liver tissue. The most interesting feature was the high proportion of thyroid cancers, especially in females. It represented 12.1 percent of all cancers in female and 5.2 percent in male Melanesians in Vanuatu. These percentages were found to be even higher than among Hawaiians for whom the highest incidence rates in the world have been recorded. Since our study was based solely on pathologically diagnosed cases, the findings should be regarded as minimum estimates.