[The trends in cancer mortality, especially lung cancer, in Spain compared with other developed countries]

In this paper we study the general mortality trends by cancer in Spain (1951-1987), and also by sex and age groups. We focus on lung cancer, establishing comparisons with USA, England and Wales. We appreciate on the general mortality trend that only young age groups show a higher decrease, while in other countries this decrease was also in old age groups. We observed a lower mortality trend in Spain by lung cancer than in the other countries, however increasing the rates in both sexes and more in males. That evolution could be related with the evolution of cancer risk factors and especially lung cancer. On concluded that the general mortality trend in Spain is the same than other developed countries but with some delay in the evolution, when comparing lung cancer. Spain is now in an increasing phase and USA, England and Wales have stabilized their rates and begin to decrease their trends.