Aims and background: To analyze differences in cancer incidence and mortality between urban and semiurban municipalities in central Italy.
Methods and study design: Population-based survey in the provinces of Florence and Prato in Central Italy involving cancer patients diagnosed between 1985 to 1997 and cancer deaths from 1985 to 1998.
Results: Urban-semiurban incidence ratios were significantly high in both genders for all cancer sites combined (males 1.06, females 1.09), lung (1.11 and 1.37), Kaposi's sarcoma (1.96 and 2.39) and urinary bladder (1.23 and 1.44) and significantly low for stomach cancer (0.76 and 0.84). Among females, urban incidence excesses were present for breast, cervix uteri and skin melanoma and among males for prostate, Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphomas and mesotheliomas. Most of the cancer mortality rate ratios corresponded to the incidence rate ratios.
Conclusions: We found that cancer risks and deaths were not homogeneously distributed in the analyzed area, but an urban gradient was present. Part of the differences can probably be attributed to environmental exposures and lifestyle.