Patterns of nasopharyngeal cancer mortality in the United States

We examined the geographic pattern of nasopharyngeal cancer (NP cancer) mortality in the United States using economic sub-regions (ESRs) as the basis for analysis. The distribution of 15,145 deaths from NP cancer over the years 1950-1979 revealed clustering in the 119 ESRs that was not detected in analyses of distribution by the 48 states, 506 state economic areas or 3,056 counties or combinations of counties of the coterminous United States. NP cancer mortality among white males was concentrated on the south-east Atlantic and Gulf coasts. This newly described pattern is not due to any recent changes in mortality rates and should provide leads to further epidemiologic study.