Patterns of site-specific displacement in cancer mortality among migrants: the Chinese in the United States.

Taking advantage of the information gathered for the 1975 National Mortality Survey in China, this paper compares the levels of cancer mortality among foreign-born and United States-born Chinese around 1970 with those of the communities of origin of the majority of Chinese migrants to the US. Age-adjusted rates indicate two distinctive site-specific patterns among US Chinese: a downward trend for cancers of high risk among Guangdong and Hong Kong Chinese (nasopharynx, esophagus, liver, uterus, and perhaps stomach) and an upward trend for those sites of low risk among Chinese in Guangdong and Hong Kong (colon, lung, leukemia, and female breast). Further field studies are needed with emphasis on the birthplace of migrants and environmental changes in host countries.