Cancer of the alimentary tract in Costa Rica.

High cancer mortality in Costa Rica, especially stomach cancer mortality, has long attracted the attention of local doctors and statisticians. Nervertheless, as in many parts of the world with relatively young populations and limited resources, this matter has in the past been overshadowed by larger health problems, and the statistics that are available have received scant attention. Despite the small number of studies on cancer in Costa Rica, relevant mortality data are contained in the analyses of mortality from all causes which are regularly published by the Pan American Health Organization, and which include data from all countries of the Americas. These analyses place Costa Rica among the countries having the highest incidence of cancer-related deaths (I, 3). Also, general mortality statistics of a more detailed nature are contained in the regular publications of the Statistics and Census Bureau of Costa Rica (4) and in the review of 3,000 autopsies authored by Mena in 1964 (5). Also, like Mena, Strong, et al. (6) have used autopsy data from Costa Rica’s principal hospital, San Juan de Dios, in attempting to correlate certain environmental factors with the incidence of stomach cancer. In 1969 the author (7) published a general account on cancer incidence and mortality in