International incidence and mortality data for ICD rubric 160 (nose and nasal cavities, middle ear and accessory sinuses) are reviewed, the relative frequency data for cancer for each of the constituent anatomical locations presented and the histological types of neoplasms encountered tabulated to determine if geographical differences exist which might be worth further investigation. Relatively high rates for this generally rare disease were found in Asian and African populations, the highest age-adjusted rates, between 2.6 and 2.5 per 100,000 per annum, occurring in Japanese males. Independent of the higher rates, the extremely low proportion of cancers of the nose and nasal cavities together with the very high proportion of cancer of the maxillary sinus in Japan are in contrast with a much higher relative frequency of nose and nasal cavity cancer in other countries. These findings seem to justify further studies of these tumours in this country, particularly as none of the known aetiological factors reviewed in this paper explain the high rates for this cancer in Japan.

An immunohistochemistry panel of cytokeratin, vimentin, insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 and glucose transporter 1 could provide superior information compared with haematoxylin and eosin staining alone in the diagnosis of cases of mesothelial proliferation in canine pericardium, but further validation is warranted.

To assess whether the increase in malignant melanoma incidence could be due, at least in part, to changes in histological criteria of malignancy, pathologists in Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR reviewed diagnoses of 50 consecutive pigmented naevi (40 junctional and compound; 10 intradermal) and 20 consecutive malignant melanomas made in each participating centre around 1930, around 1955 and around 1980. Collaborating pathologists re-read the material, 2,665 cases in all, either from the original slide (82%) or from a recut block (17%), gave their diagnosis and indicated whether the lesion was benign (B), dubious benign (DB), dubious malignant (DM) or malignant (M). As the distribution of review diagnoses was much the same whether the original slide or one made from a recut block was read, the material was pooled. Overall, 2.8% of cases originally reported as B/DB were reviewed as DM/M, while 4.4% of the DM/M diagnoses were held to be B/DB. The shifts between categories were greatest around 1955 and least around 1980, suggesting increasing uniformity of interpretation. All available blocks were recut and sections sent to IARC for review: 1.7% (22) of 1293 B/DB diagnoses were considered to be DM/M and 3.3% (18) of 551 DM/M diagnoses were considered to have been B/DB. The consistently low frequency of shift in diagnostic category, whether the material was reviewed in the collaborating laboratories or by one pathologist at IARC, in a study designed to give maximum attention to those lesions--the junctional and compound naevi--in which a change in opinion as to malignancy would be most likely to arise, suggests that pathologists, irrespective of geographical location, are using common criteria. These findings argue against changes in histological interpretation as being responsible for more than a small portion of the continuous increase of some 3% to 8% per annum observed in malignant melanoma incidence. Other explanations, such as an increase in the frequency or potential for malignant transformation of precursor lesions, must be sought. The anatomical distribution of the malignant melanomas examined followed the usual site pattern by sex, and their thickness was observed to decrease over the period of the study in most centres.

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The distribution of cancer of the anatomical sub-sites cf the colon and rectctm in Alameda County (California), Bombay. Denmark, Kingston and St .4ndrew (Jamaica), Miyagi Prefkture (Japan), New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Saskatchewan (Canada)