Aspects of the incidente of cancer of the oesophagus in residents of the city of S. Paulo, Brazil, for 1975, are examined. Data collected by the Cancer Registry yield a rate of 6.4/100,000 and 1.3/100,000 for males and females, respectively; when adjusted to the «world-population» the rates are 9.2/100,000 and 2.0/100,000. Male rates put S. Paulo at higher risk than three other Brazilian cities with known data, namely Fortaleza, Recife and Rio de Janeiro; for females there is no strong indication of differences, except in the case of Fortaleza. The specific age-sex incidence curves conform well to the pattern described by Higginson and Muir; values for the curves of 1nI (age-specific rate) at ages 35 through 75 were 5.7 for males and 4.4 for females, when adjusting a straight line. S. Paulo city natives present a lower incidence than people born elsewhere; for the two categories of migrants within Brazil, living in S. Paulo, the age-specific incidence rates for males are consistently very high. Male-female ratio patterns are fairly regular among the three Brazilian groups; the foreign-born present higher ratios.
Neoplasms; Epidemiology
