Cancer in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: relative frequencies

Some 1220 male and 2102 female cases of malignant neoplasms diagnosed histologically at the Department of Pathology of the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta during the period 1970-73 were analysed. The most frequent tumour sites were among men: nasopharyngeal cancer, 21-8% and skin cancer, 17-6%. Among women the genital cancers were the most frequent with: cervix uteri, 25-7% chorionepithelioma, 3-7%, other uterus, 4-4% and ovary, 7-4%. Breast cancer comprised 17-0%, skin 9-6% and nasopharyngeal cancer 7-9%. Low frequencies were observed in both sexes for cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract and of the respiratory organs; previous reports of the rarity of gastric cancer were confirmed. The observed distribution is discussed in the light of possible biases, and compared with other material on the frequency of cancer from South East Asia.