Geographic patterns and trends of liver, biliary tract and pancreas cancer mortality in Slovakia.

The age-adjusted mortality rates and trends of primary liver cancer in Slovakia showed during the investigated decade 1968-1977 small reduction in males, accompanied with statistically significant decline in females. The slightly increasing trends of mortality from the cancer of gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts were not significant while the growing rates and upward trends of mortality from pancreatic malignant neoplasms were statistically significant for both sexes. Geographic distribution of standardized mortality rates from these cancer sites displayed various differences within the districts of Slovakia during the whole investigated period. The need for further descriptive and analytical studies of these less common cancer sites of the alimentary system using more detailed and classified data on incidence and mortality is stressed.