[French oncology: a spatiotemporal general view from a special observation point, the Year Books of Cancer]

The Year Book(s) of Cancer were analyzed to count selected French articles within the 1965-1982 period. A comparison between two periods: 1966-1976 and 1978-1982 shows an increase in French production from 2.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent. Strong sectors are breast, female genital tract, leukemia and lymphoma, radiotherapy, immunology and immunotherapy. This increase in number of selected papers is mostly due to articles published in biomedical French journals in which French language is prevalent. The place of provincial institutions changed from 1/4 in 1965-1976 to 1/2 in 1978-1982. With the same method of analysis, cancerology seems more developed in France than cardiology or endocrinology. This statistic suggests the necessary endeavours to further regularly improve the situation.