Atlas of Cancer Mortality -

Atlas of Cancer Mortality

Results -- Geographic Patterns for Cancer of the Oral Cavity and Pharynx

In recent years, geographic variation was pronounced, with high rates along the eastern seaboard among white males and females and elevated rates also among females in the northeastern and several western states, especially along the Pacific coast. In both time periods, low rates were seen across the central, Plains, and Rocky Mountain states in both sexes. The prominent clustering of excess mortality among white females in the Southeast during 1950–69 faded somewhat during 1970–94. Among blacks, the rates were generally low across the South. As the dominant risk factors for oral and pharyngeal cancer, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption largely account for the higher national rates among blacks than whites and among men than women ^17,18 and contribute to the geographic patterns observed.¹⁹ Use of smokeless tobacco has been implicated as the cause of the elevated rates of oral cancer observed since the 1950s among women in the rural South. ²⁰ Despite reductions in the prevalence of snuff dipping among women,²¹ there are still patches of elevated oral cancer rates in parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida in the recent period.

References

17. Blot WJ, McLaughlin JK, Devesa SS, Fraumeni JF Jr. Cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx. In: Schottenfeld D, Fraumeni JF Jr, editors. Cancer epidemiology and prevention. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 1996. p. 666-80.

18. Day GL, Blot WJ, Austin DF, Bernstein L, Greenberg RS, Preston-Martin S, Schoenberg JB, Winn DM, McLaughlin JK, Fraumeni JF Jr. Racial differences in risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer: alcohol, tobacco, and other determinants. J Natl Cancer Inst 1993;85:465-73.

19. Blot WJ, Fraumeni JF Jr. Geographic patterns of oral cancer in the United States: etiologic implications. J Chronic Dis 1977;30:745-57.

20. Winn DM, Blot WJ, Shy CM, Pickle LW, Toledo A, Fraumeni JF Jr. Snuff dipping and oral cancer among women in the southern United States. N Engl J Med 1981;304:745-9.

21. Giovino GA, Schooley MW, Zhu BP, Chrismon JH, Tomar SL, Peddicord JP, Merritt RK, Husten CG, Eriksen MP. Surveillance for selected tobacco-use behaviors—United States, 1900-1994. Mor Mortal Wkly Rep CDC Surveill Summ 1994;43:1-43.

Suggested Citation

Devesa SS, Grauman DG, Blot WJ, Pennello G, Hoover RN, Fraumeni JF Jr. Atlas of cancer mortality in the United States, 1950-94. Washington, DC: US Govt Print Off; 1999 [NIH Publ No. (NIH) 99-4564].