Cancer Cases Reported Up in Bay Area

Led by San Francisco, newly diagnosed cancer cases are up in five Bay Area counties but still slightly below the national average, says the state Department of Health Services in its first such study in 10 years.

Between 1972 and 1984, the draft report said, the incidence of cases in the five counties rose 9.7%. The study did not say if a common environmental factor might be a cause.

The survey said San Francisco is the hardest hit of the counties studied, posting an average of 363 new cases per 100,000 population between 1981 and 1984.

New Cancer Cases

Nationwide, there were 351.8 new cases of cancer diagnosed per 100,000.

Second-ranked is Marin County with 356.6 cases per 100,000. Alameda County has 347.8 cases; Contra Costa County, 340 cases, and San Mateo County, 335 cases.

The number of new cancer cases climbed from 318 in 1972 to 349 in 1984 per 100,000 of residents of the five Bay Area counties.

The sharpest increase by cancer type is non-Hodgkins lymphoma--a 222% increase over 12 years.

Other cancers climbed as well during the 12-year period, including tracheal and lung cancer, by 20.7%; prostate cancer, 25%, and breast cancer, 8.9%. At the same time, there was a 57% drop in uterine cancer.

The report was based on tumor registry data compiled by doctors and hospitals.

According to the American Cancer Society, of the estimated 13,611 people diagnosed as having cancer in 1984, an estimated 6,921 will have died of the disease by 1989.