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Rapid increases in the incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus have been reported among white men. We further explored the temporal patterns of this disease among white individuals by sex, stage, and age by use of data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. We identified 22,759 patients from January 1, 1975, through December 31, 2004, with esophageal cancer, of whom 9526 were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. Among white men, increases in the incidence of esophageal cancer were largely attributed to a 463% increase in the incidence of adenocarcinoma over this time period, from 1.01 per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval CI = 0.90 to 1.13) in 1975-1979 to 5.69 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI = 5.47 to 5.91) in 2000-2004. A similar rapid increase was also apparent among white women, among whom the adenocarcinoma rate increased 335%, from 0.17 (95% CI = 0.13 to 0.21) to 0.74 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI = 0.67 to 0.81), over the same time period. Adenocarcinoma rates rose among white men and women in all stage and age groups, indicating that these increases are real and not an artifact of surveillance.
Brown et al. (Mon,) studied this question.