Malignant neoplastic disease in women

Abstract

This study refers to a longitudinal population study of women in Gothenburg, Sweden. The prevalences of malignant neoplastic disease in two cross-sectional studies in 1968-1969 and in 1980-1981, respectively, and incidence figures for the 12-year period between these cross-sectional studies are presented. The data on malignant neoplasms were based on interview of the participants in the population study, on information from the Cancer Registry of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and from the Swedish National Bureau of Statistics and were confirmed by death certificates, inpatient and outpatient records and reexaminations of tissue specimens from the tumor tissue. The prevalences of malignant neoplastic disease increased with age from 0.3% at the age of 38 to 9.9% in women aged 60. The incidence rates during the 12-year period increased with age from about 2% in women aged 38 at the beginning of the study to be about 10% in women initially aged 60. Breast cancer was found to be the most common single malignant neoplasm followed by cancer of uterus and cancer of the ovaries.