International Range of Cancer Incidence

For females, rates for all sites ranged from a high of 345.4 per 100,000 in British Columbia, Canada, to a low of 39.6 in The Gambia. The comparable rate for U.S. white females (SEER) was 277.0 and for black females (SEER) was 227.1 per 100,000.

For females, liver and melanoma of the skin were sites with the largest high-to-low ratios in worldwide incidence, 383 and 253, respectively. The area reporting the highest liver cancer rate among women was Khon Kaen, Thailand (38.3 per 100,000); the lowest was 0.1 in Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), Canada. For melanoma of the skin, the highest rate was 25.3 in Australian Capital Territory, while the lowest rate, 0.1, was reported by three areas: Qidong, China; non-Kuwaitis in Kuwait; and Sétif, Algeria.

Incidence rates for female breast cancer were highest among white women in the San Francisco Bay, California, area (104.2) and lowest among women in The Gambia (3.4 per 100,000). Lung cancer rates among women ranged from a high of 62.2 per 100,000 in New Zealand Maoris to a low of 1.4 in Madras, India. Colorectal cancer rates among women were highest in New Zealand non-Maoris (42.8 per 100,000) and hardly measurable among women in The Gambia (0.7).