Gastric and lung cancer mortality in the Marche region of Italy, 1980-1983.

This paper describes patterns in gastric and lung cancer mortality in the Marche region of Italy and in its 24 Local Health Districts (LHD) over the period 1980-83. Mortality data were obtained from the magnetic tapes provided by the National Institute of Statistics. Linear regressions were tested with the aim to relate the AADRs with the proportion of the agricultural workers in the 1951, 1961 and 1971 census years. The results obtained show that, in the whole Marche region, mortality from lung cancer is first in male cancer mortality. However within the Region itself many LHDs had different patterns. Among the LHDs, gastric cancer rates were the highest in some northern mountain zones, and lung cancer rates in some central coastal zones. Statistical analyses emphasize the inverse relationship between the male 0-64 AADRs relative to gastric cancer and those of lung cancer in the 24 LHDs. Among these, the male gastric cancer 0-64 AADRs are significantly and directly related to the proportion of farm workers in 1971, and the female ones to the proportion of farm workers in all the three periods, which in turn are always inversely related to the 0-64 AADRs male lung cancer. The differences between the observed and expected death frequencies in the several LHDs stress the results obtained in the present study, which generally agree with those obtained in other studies regarding the same and neighbouring areas and with those reported by the international literature.