Comparison of Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Mortality in five Countries: France, Italy, Japan, UK and USA from the WHO Mortality Database (1960–2000)

Oral and pharyngeal cancer mortality age-standardized rates (ASRs; using 1985 Japanese standard population) are shown for Japan, USA, UK, France and Italy (Fig. 1). ASRs for males in Japan are lower than for males in other countries until the first half of the 1990s (Fig. 1, left), while those in France have always been highest. ASRs in the UK decreased slightly in the 1960s and reached a plateau in the 1970s. Those in USA, France and Italy also exhibit a decreasing trend after the 1980s. However, only the ASRs of males from Japan have constantly increased over this period. As a result of these increasing trends, ASRs of Japanese males reached those of males from the UK and USA in the late 1990s. For females (Fig. 1, right), the ASRs of oral and pharyngeal cancer in five countries show similar trends. Similar to males, ASRs of females from Japan are lower than the other four countries from 1960 to 2000, although currently the differences between ASRs of Japan and the other countries is smaller.