[Malignant tumors in patients aged 60 and over--an analysis of 208 autopsy cases]

From the autopsy of 617 cases aged 60 and over, 208 cases with malignant tumor were found. The detection rate of malignant tumor was 35.8% in male and 26.4% in female. Malignant tumor was the cause of death in 26.0% of male patients and 19.3% of female ones. Malignant tumor was the second most common cause of death in the elders. The incidence of malignant tumors increased with age in male, but it peaked in the 70s age group in female. The top three most common malignant tumors were carcinoma of the lung(8.6%), stomach (5.9%), and liver (4.6%) in men, and that of the lung (7.9%), stomach (3.6%), and colon (2.9%) in women. It must be pointed out that the incidence of malignant tumor in three medical eras gradually increased. It was 19.8% in the period from 1952 to 1969, 23.5% from 1970 to 1979 and 26.0% from 1980 to 1992.