Recent cancer patterns among men and women in the United States: clues for occupational research.

Investigation of cancer rates--including trends over time, geographic variations, and differences by race, gender, and age--may identify patterns suggesting environmental exposures of potential occupational origin. National mortality data spanning the 40-year period from 1950 to 1989 were used to assess the patterns of several cancers for which occupational components have been identified among men, including cancers of the lung and bladder, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and leukemia, and for cancers of particular concern to women, such as breast and ovarian cancer, but for which occupational factors have not been well characterized. Newly available preliminary data show substantial geographic variation in cancer mortality rates at the county level during the 1970s and 1980s. Future analyses of the patterns, correlations with industrial indicators, and analytic studies should be fruitful in identifying occupational and other risk factors for cancers among women.