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In Bangalore, cancer of the oesophagus is the third most common cancer in males and fourth most common in females with average annual age-adjusted incidence rates of 8.2 and 8.9 per 100,000 respectively. A case-control investigation of cancer of the oesophagus was conducted based on the Population-based cancer registry, Bangalore, India. Three hundred and forty-three cases of cancer of the oesophagus were age and sex matched with twice the number of controls from the same area, but with no evidence of cancer. Chewing with or without tobacco was a significant risk factor. In both sexes chewing was not a risk factor for cancer of the upper third of the oesophagus. Among males, non-tobacco chewing was a significant risk factor for the middle third but not for the other two segments and tobacco chewing was a significant risk factor for the lower third of the oesophagus, but not for the other two segments. Bidi smoking in males was a significant risk factor for all three segments being highest for the upper third, less for the middle third and still less for the lower third. The risk of oesophageal cancer associated with alcohol drinking was significant only for the middle third.

Cancer of the cervix is the most common cancer among women in India, constituting between one-sixth to one-half of all female cancers with an age-adjusted incidence rate ranging from 19.4 to 43.5 per 100,000 in the registries under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) (Annual Reports, NCRP, ICMR). It has been estimated that 100,000 new cases of cancer of the cervix occur in India every year, and 70% or more of these are Stage III or higher at diagnosis. However, the incidence of cancer of the cervix as suggested in this report appears to be on the decline in Bangalore. Besides incidence and clinical stage at presentation knowledge of survival is essential to complete the picture of establishing baseline indicators to monitor and evaluate cancer control programmes. Survival analysis was carried out in 2121 patients diagnosed during 1982-89 in the population of Bangalore, India. The observed 5 year survival was 34.4% and the relative survival 38.3%. Clinical stage at presentation was the single most important variable in predicting survival. The 5 year observed survival for stage I disease was 63.3%, for stage II 44.0%, for stage III 30.3% and for stage IV 5.7%.

Survival from cancer reflects the aggressiveness of the disease, the effectiveness of treatment and host factors such as age. While hospital-based survival rates are typically used to evaluate the care provided in a particular hospital, population-based survival reflects the effectiveness of the overall cancer control strategy in the region. Here, we report the survival experience of 1514 breast cancer patients registered by the Bangalore population-based registry during 1982-1989. There have been very few reports on survival from cancer in India, mainly because of poor patient follow-up and inadequate system of registration of death. This has been largely overcome in this study by means of active follow-up through visits of homes of patients. Scrutiny of medical records and matching with death certificates, was also carried out in a small proportion (12%) of cases. Thus, information on vital status (whether dead or alive) as on January 1, 1993 was available for 1334 (88%) subjects and partial follow up data were available for a further 34 (2%). The observed 5 year survival was 42.3% and the corresponding relative survival was 46.8%. The observed survival was 57.4% for localized disease, 45.8% for direct extension, 37% for those with regional node involvement, 14.2% for distant metastasis and 38.3% for those with unstaged disease. The clinical extent of disease and the educational status were independent predictors of survival.

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While fairly complete and reliable incident data on childhood cancers are available from the registries in India, mortality and survival information is not. Information concerning the latter was obtained by the Bangalore cancer registry through active follow-up involving visits to homes of patients. Between 1982 and 1989, 617 cases of cancers in childhood were registered, giving an age-standardized incidence rate of 84.8 and 48.4 per million in male and female children, respectively. Active follow-up provided mortality/survival information in 532 or 86.2 percent of these cases. Overall, observed five-year survival was 36.8 percent (both genders combined) with a relative survival of 37.5 percent when childhood mortality in the general population was taken into account. The five-year relative survival was best for thyroid carcinoma (100 percent) followed by Hodgkin's disease (73 percent) and retinoblastoma (72.9 percent). Survival was comparatively low, being 9.9 percent in acute nonlymphatic leukemia and less than 20 percent in rhabdomyosarcoma and the category grouped as 'other malignant neoplasms.' Survival in Hodgkin's disease was influenced by clinical stage at presentation, but was not statistically significant possibly due to small numbers.