Some epidemiological outlooks on cancer mortality in Czechoslovakia

Study of the total mortality evolution of the population in Czechoslovakia indicated the steadily increasing and recently 20% participation of the malignant neoplasms and their leading, second position among main causes of deaths. The crude cancer mortality rates of all sites showed in the period 1946--1975 substantial increase more expressed in males, while the pattern of age-adjusted mortality rates of men were lower and in the women remained quite stable during the whole evaluated period. Cancer mortality in this period was characterized also with increasing overmortality of men. Analysis of age-specific death rates revealed not only higher mortality of males but also the shifting of the peaks to older age groups in both sexes. The malignant neoplasms of lung, stomach, prostate and rectum in men and the tumors of breast, stomach, colon, rectum and of genital organs in women were the most important individual sites. Finally, the actual cancer mortality rates of all sites in Czechoslovakia were compared with those of some European countries.