No abstract

Cases with abnormal liver function tests, Bantu blood donors, neonates, Caucasian patients with primary cancer of the liver, and male Bantu mine workers with primary cancer of the liver have been investigated by means of a quantitative alpha‐feto‐protein (AFP) immunodiffusion assay. No false‐positive AFP tests have occurred, and 78% of primary liver cancer patients are positive. More sensitive tests are capable of increasing the positivity rate still further.

Thus, these four cancers accounted for 75-1% of the total number of cases.Brief accounts of the spatial and temporal distribution of primary liver cancer and oesophageal cancer were given by Harington and McGlashan (1973a, b).In the present investigation, geographical definition of the patterns of distribution of the four major sites of cancer was sought in the belief that statistically significant gradients, together with changes in the cancer rates in the course of time, could provide a basis for future research programmes directed at aetological implications.METHOD OF SURVEY AND BASIC DATA (i) Areas of recruitment of the population at risk.-The health problems and environmental background of African workers in the South African gold mines were described by