Cancer in young adults between the ages of 15 and 34 years in greater Bombay

An attempt has been made in this study to examine the nature and magnitude of the cancer problem in young adults between the ages of 15 and 34 years living in Greater Bombay. The morbidity data utilised for this exercise were obtained from the Bombay Cancer Registry and the mortality analysis was made from the death records maintained by the Bombay Municipal Corporation. In Greater Bombay, the ratio of cancer incidence in this specific group as compared with the total incidence of the disease in the general population was very high in comparison with the Western incidence. The site most commonly affected by cancer in young adults seems to be the lymphatic and haematopoietic tissues in males and breast and cervix in females. The morbidity and mortality rates of the disease in the general population and in children reveal an overall male preponderance, but the situation is found to be totally reversed in young adults. Then again, the incidence as well as the mortality rates appear to decrease with advancing age in children, but in young adults the incidence increases with age. Leukaemia is the most commonly encountered malignancy in the young adult male, followed by cancers of the testes and bones, Hodgkin's disease, and cancers of the brain and connective tissues, in descending order of frequency. In females, breast cancer has the highest incidence followed by cancer of the cervix, leukaemia, and cancers of the ovary and thyroid. When the various registers are ranked according to age-adjusted incidence rates, the figures for Greater Bombay are seen to be at the lowest levels in both sexes.