Cancer Study Estimates Future Cases in County : Research: Doctors hope that report, which for the first time breaks down statistics by county, will help in detection, prevention.

More than 10,000 San Diegans will be found to have cancer in 1992, and 4,355 more will die from the disease, according to a first-of-its-kind report issued Friday by the American Cancer Society.

Statewide, there will be 120,760 new cases of cancer, said the report which, for the first time, provided a county-by-county breakdown of cancer statistics in California.

“It’s a useful tool in our effort to provide cancer detection and cancer prevention and control services in the state of California,” said Ron Mack, president of the society’s California division.

The breakdown by county will allow health organizations to target their programs toward areas where people are most at risk, as well as act as a fund-raising tool, society officials said.

“We can use it as a way to work with the state Legislature to identify specific areas where we want to get involved in,” said Paul Goldfarb, a San Diego surgical oncologist and the incoming president of the California division of the American Cancer Society.

“This report will be a tremendous tool to justify your needs to whatever kind of funding agency you have to go to,” Goldfarb said.

Although San Diego had death rates from cancer comparable to the rest of the state, Goldfarb said the county’s population could eventually have higher rates of certain kinds of cancer.

“Cancer is a disease of aging . . . People who retire come to places like San Diego, and, if you see an older population in the county, you are more likely to see prostate cancer,” Goldfarb said.

Statewide, breast cancer is the most common cancer among adult women of all ages, while Kaposi’s sarcoma--a type of malignant tumor--was the most common cancer in men from age 15 to 44; lung cancer for men 45 to 64, and prostate cancer for men 65 and older.

After age 35, lung cancer is among the top three cancers for both men and women, the report said.

“The report identifies where to direct our attention, and it becomes a measure of how successful we are at achieving our goals,” Goldfarb said.

Of the 4,355 cancer deaths expected in San Diego next year, more than one in four will be from lung cancer, the report said.

“The sad thing is that cancer really is in many ways a preventable disease, and tobacco use still remains one of the major preventable causes of cancer,” Mack said.

However, cancer rates continue to rise statewide, and, by the year 2000, cancer is expected to be the most common cause of hospital admission, Goldfarb said.

Cancer death rates among poor people of all ethnic groups still outpace those of rich people, who tend to have greater access to early treatment and detection programs, Goldfarb said.

The society hopes to issue the report annually, but state budget woes threaten to cut one of the main offices in the state for gathering cancer statistics. The report used figures compiled by the California Tumor Registry, a branch of the Department of Health Services established in 1985 as a repository for cancer statistics after the American Cancer Society lobbied for its creation.

The registry’s $12-million annual budget is being threatened by several bills in the state Legislature, the society said.