[Cancer in Rwanda. Study of relative frequency]

The relative frequency by age, sex and site of the malignant tumours diagnosed during the years 1982-84 in the main pathology department of Rwanda (serving approximately 80% of the population) is presented. Excluding skin, the numerically most important cancers in males were Kaposi's sarcoma (11.5%), stomach cancer (9.9%), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (8.1%) and primary carcinoma of liver (6.6%), and in females cancers of the uterine cervix (21.4%), breast (16.8%) and stomach (6.5%). The possible sources of bias are discussed, and the results are compared with those from previous studies in this part of central Africa.