Risk for development of cancer in three urban areas of India.

The probability of developing cancer by using life table approach has been computed for the population of three metropolitan cities of India based on data of population based cancer registries located at Bangalore, Bombay and Madras. It was observed that the risk for development of malignancy of all sites from 20 to 64 years ranged from 4.73% to 5.28% in males, whereas it was 6.76% to 9.18% in females. The increased risk in females was mainly due to the high risk of development of cancer of the uterine cervix and breast. The available morbidity indices such as cumulative incidence rate and cumulative risk do not account for the mortality experiences of population. The present exercise will be useful in evaluating the changes in the disease spectrum as a result of change in the mortality experiences and population structure.