Differences in cancer incidence between parts with different socio-economic structure within a Swedish big-city area.

Two subareas with different socio-economic structure in the same big-city area were compared with respect to cancer incidence. Pulmonary cancer was overrepresented in the low socio-economic area. Smoking was more common in the same area, which may be a main contributory factor for the increased incidence of pulmonary cancer in that area. The results indicate that useful information, to be used as a base for local preventive measures, can be obtained from cancer statistics on the community level.