Cancer mortality among Polish migrants to Australia

Abstract

This paper investigates the risk of cancer in Polish migrants to Australia, and compares the results with earlier studies, as well as with results of studies of Polish migrants in other countries. Poisson regression models were used to estimate the risk of death in Polish migrants, relative to the Australia-born, as well as the relative risk of cancer in Poland compared to the Australia-born. In migrant males, a significantly lower risk was found for oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, melanoma, prostate and Hodgkin's disease, while a significantly elevated risk was found for stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney and thyroid gland. In migrant females, a risk significantly lower than in Australian-born individuals was found for oral cavity, colon, melanoma, breast and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Relative risk significantly higher than in Australia-born was detected for stomach, gall bladder, pancreas, cervix uteri, nervous system and thyroid gland. For some of these cancers, the risk in migrants approximates to that of the Australia-born with increasing duration of stay. Thus, there are progressive increases in risk for colon cancer in males, and breast cancer and melanoma in females, and decreases in risk for stomach and bladder cancers in males, and uterine cancers in females.