The National Mortality Survey of China: implications for cancer control and prevention

Findings of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Cancer Mortality Survey were reviewed for historic background, implications for etiologic-interventive clues, and transitional experience among Chinese migrants. Rates, calculated using the 10% sample census, were all age-adjusted. Cancer comprised about 10% of total deaths, with stomach cancer as the top killer. Minority rates, adjusted to the 1964 China population, ranged from 26.7 (Miao) to 127.5 (Kazak). Multiple high-risk areas were noted for cancer of the esophagus and other sites, and urban rates exceeded those for rural areas. The transitional experience among U.S. Chinese was examined at geographic-generational levels. Among U.S. Chinese, downward trends were found for cancers known as to be high-risk for Asian-Chinese (nasopharynx, esophagus, liver, uterus, and perhaps stomach). The reverse was true for low-risk sites (colon, lung leukemia, and female breast). Lung and colorectal cancers among females were the only major sites for which foreign-born Chinese had higher rates than U.S.-born.