[Municipal distribution of the incidence of the most common tumours in an area with high cancer mortality]

Abstract

Objective: To describe the geographic distribution patterns of the municipal incidence of the most common tumours in the Huelva province (Spain) as compared to the estimated incidence for all of Spain.

Methods: Relative risk (RR) was computed based on the conditional autoregressive model proposed by Besag, York and Mollié by applying the INLA tool to the cancer data for 2007-2011 for the following tumour locations: colon, rectum and anus (men and women); trachea, bronchia, and lungs, prostate and bladder in men; and breasts in women. The RR was presented in in choropleth and isopleth (with kriging interpolation) risk maps.

Results: RR for bladder cancer in men was greater than 1.0 in all municipalities, with confidence intervals over 1.0 in four municipalities; Madrid having a 1.56 RR (95%CI 1.30-1.67). For prostate cancer, a posteriori probabilities were below 0.1 in 68 of the 79 municipalities. For lung cancer, nine municipalities had confidence limits below 1.0, almost all of them in western Spain. For women, the RR for breast cancer was significantly higher in the capital of province area. The cancer incidence rates for the Huelva province were, in general, similar to those estimated for Spain, standing out bladder cancer in men (35% higher) and prostate cancer (30% lower).

Conclusions: In the Huelva province, there is a geographical municipal distribution of cancer incidence with well-defined patterns for some specific tumour locations, with overall incidence rates very similar to those in the rest of Spain.

Keywords: Cancer; Cáncer; Epidemiology; Epidemiología; Huelva; Mapas; Maps; Public health; Salud Pública.