The Changing Pattern of Cancer Mortality

Although the Department of Census and Statistics has recorded and analysed the causes of death in South Africa for many years, it is only since 1949 that detailed figures on deaths from cancer have become available. Since then, 5 issues of Report on Dearh have been published periodically' giving the age and sex of persons who died from certain major diseases, which included J6 cancer groups. These are available for Whites, Coloureds and Asians, for the whole of South Africa. Compulsory registration of vital events for Blacks was introduced many years ago, but despite serious efforts on the part of the registration authorities, the Blacks are still largely reluctant to have their deaths registered, and consequently complete death statistics are not available for this population group. A first analysis of these data was made in 1964 by the late Dr A. G. Oettle," who calculated cancer mortality rates for the whole period 1949 1958, for Whites, Coloureds and Asians, standardised to the United States population of 1950, and compared these with the 1955 mortality rates of United States Whites and non-Whites. In the present study, the intention is to examine the changing pattern of certain cancer mortality rates for each of the above race groups, over the period 1948 1969.