Patterns and trends of pancreatic cancer mortality rates in Arkansas, 1969-2002: a comparison with the US population.

Little is known about trends in pancreatic cancer mortality in individual states of the US and its whole population. This study aimed to describe the patterns and trends of pancreatic cancer mortality in Arkansas, 1969-2002, using the US national rates as a reference. Joinpoint regression analyses were performed to evaluate trends in age-standardized mortality rates of pancreatic cancer by age group, sex, and race, using data obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics. Throughout the period examined, mortality decreased in young and middle-aged people (<60 years) and men but increased in old people (≥ 60 years) and women. A continuous fall in mortality occurred among whites except for a transient rise in the late 1970s. For blacks, mortality rates did not cease to increase until 1995. Unlike in Arkansas, a monotonic upward or downward trend in mortality by age group and sex was not observed in the US. A decline of mortality stopped in 1997 for US whites. Recent decreasing trends were more pronounced in Arkansas blacks than in US blacks. Changes of pancreatic cancer mortality in the last three decades in Arkansas remarkably differed by age, sex, and race and were different in patterns from those of the US population.