[Statistical research and epidemiology in oncology]

The author indicates briefly the results from the statistical and epidemiological studies of cancer in Spain. Between 1903 and 1978 cancer mortality passed from 39.00 per 100.000 to 152.4 per 100.000, and sex distribution from 43% men and 56% women to 57% men and 42% women. Cancer represented 1.52% of the total mortality in 1903 and 18.95% in 1978. The largest incidence of cancer diseases is observed for ages between 45 and 75 years in men, with a maximum at 60, and between 40 and 71 years in women, with a maximum at 55. In all Spanish regions the most frequent mortal localizations are lung cancer among men and mammary cancer among women. The second place corresponds to stomach cancer in both sexes. Other important causes of death are the tumors of the prostate, liver, urinary bladder, larynx, colon and rectum, hematopoietic system, and esophagus in man, and the neoplasms of liver, lung, body of the uterus, colon and rectum, hematopoietic system and gallbladder and bile ducts in women. It is surprising the high frequency of primitive liver cancer in some regions, reaching an incidence of 4.39% in Tarragona and 6.07% in Zaragoza.