Trends in oesophageal and gastric cancer incidence, mortality and survival in England and Wales 1971–1998/1999

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Abstract
Background : In England and Wales, 7% of cancers diagnosed in 1997 were oesophageal or gastric cancer. Aim : To review the epidemiology of these cancers in England and Wales using cancer registration data from 1971 to 1998 and mortality data from 1971 to 1999. Methods : We calculated age‐specific and age‐standardised incidence and mortality rates; crude and relative survival by age group; age‐standardised relative survival; and relative survival by socio‐economic status. Results : The age‐standardised incidence of oesophageal cancer increased from 7.6 to 12.8 per 100 000 men and from 4.2 to 5.7 per 100 000 women. The incidence of gastric cancer decreased from 31.8 to 18.9 per 100 000 men and from 15.1 to 7.3 per 100 000 women. For both cancers, the 1‐ and 5‐year age‐standardised relative survival improved for men and women from 1971–1975 to 1992–1994; the 5‐year age‐standardised relative survival was significantly higher in women than in men diagnosed in 1992–1994; for some periods from 1971–1975 to 1986–1990, the 1‐year relative survival was significantly higher in the least deprived men than in the most deprived men. Conclusions : Survival improved for both cancers over the study period, but there were unexplained differences related to sex and deprivation.