A Cancer Survey in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa

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Abstract
The organization of a Cancer Survey in Lourenço Marques, the capital of the Province of Mozambique, Portuguese East Africa, is described. In lieu of a census, a sample survey was devised by use of aerial photographs and random sampling. Eighty percent of the African population uses the State medical services. The pattern of tumor frequency remained unchanged during the 5-year period; 91.7 percent of tumors in males and 81.7 percent in females were confirmed histologically. Cancer of the liver was the most frequent tumor in men and in women (respectively 65.5% and 31.0% of all tumors). The cancer rates for the African population of Lourenço Marques were compared with those for Johannesburg Bantu and Coloreds, and U.S. whites and nonwhites. The unusually high cancer incidence rates in the population of Lourenço Marques were attributed to carcinoma of the liver, the incidence of which was 7 times higher than in Johannesburg Bantu and 58 times higher than in the U.S. whites. The incidence of cancer of the cervix was lower in the population of Lourenço Marques than in Johannesburg Bantu and U.S. nonwhites. Carcinoma of the corpus uteri was rare. Carcinomas of the bladder, among which squamous cell carcinomas predominate, were common and second to liver tumors in males. Lymphomas and Burkitt's tumor occurred frequently. Leukemia was less frequent than in the United States. Cancer in children under 10 occurred about as often as in the U.S. nonwhites. In the group 10 to 14 years old, the cancer incidence rate in both sexes was 4 times higher than the U.S. nonwhite rate because of the high morbidity from liver cancer.

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