No abstract

Cancer incidence in migrants to New South Wales (NSW) from the British Isles, north-central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East and Asia has been compared with that in Australian-born residents using data from the NSW Central Cancer Registry for 1972-84. Indirectly standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were low in migrants from all 6 regions for melanoma of skin and cancers of lip and, except in men from eastern Europe, colon. Oesophageal, rectal and prostatic cancers also tended to be relatively less common. Cancers which were more common than in the Australian-born were those of the stomach and, for men, bladder (except in the Asian-born). Migrants from different regions showed variations from the cancer pattern of the Australian-born population which, for the most part, were predictable from the known incidence of cancer in the countries within the region of origin. Exceptions were the high relative incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer in migrants from southern Europe and bladder cancer in men from all regions other than Asia.

In a case-control investigation of 154 women with cancer of the bladder and 440 female population controls spanning the same age range, the relative risk for this cancer was 2.6 in consumers of phenacetin-containing analgesics and 2.7 in tobacco smokers. The relative risks for cancer of the renal pelvis, determined for 31 cases, were 5.4 with phenacetin and 4.7 with tobacco. Increasing consumption of either agent increased the risk for cancer at each of the two sites, while a synergistic rather than purely additive effect was apparent when both phenacetin-containing analgesics and tobacco had been taken. Consumption of analgesic preparations which contained no phenacetin did not increase the risk of developing cancer at either site. The evidence indicates that phenacetin is a clinically important carcinogen for the lower as well as for the upper urinary tract.