Carcinoma of the cervix in the Indians of the Southwest: A preliminary report

U N D E R the sponsorship of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, this study was conducted with the aim of accumulating as much statistical evidence as possible to compare the incidence of carcinoma of the cervix in the Indians of the Southwest with that of other peoples. Two other articles in the literature have discussed this subject but their opinions were not in agreement. In 1957 Smith1 studied the mortality records of the American Indians and concluded : “Analysis of mortality recorded among the Indians of the United States supports the view that they show a deficit of cancer as a whole. . . . For females . . . , excesses were shown for mortality attributed to cancer of the liver . . . and for cancer of the cervix compared to the white rates.” Salsbury and his associate? wrote, “There is indeed a deficit of malignant disease as a whole, and more specifically of the female hreast, pelvis, the male prostate, and the lung in the Navajo.”