Patterns of site-specific displacement in cancer mortality among migrants: the Chinese in the United States.

Abstract

Taking advantage of the information gathered for the 1975 National Mortality.cntdot.Survey in China, the levels of cancer mortality among foreign-born and USA born Chinese around 1970 were compared with those of the communities of origin of the majority of chinese migrants to the USA. Age-adjusted rates indicate 2 distinctive site-specific patterns among USA Chinese: a downward trend for cancers of high risk among Guangdong and Hong Kong Chinese (nasopharynx, esophagus, liver, uterus and perhaps stomach) and an upward trend for those sites of low risk among Chinese in Guangdong and Hong Kong (colon, lung, leukemia and female breast). Further field studies are needed with emphasis on the birthplace of migrants and environmental changes in host countries.