Oesophageal cancer in Wales.

Millar (1961), in his study of gastro-intestinal cancer in Montgomeryshire, noted an increased frequency of oesophageal and gastric cancer but not of colonic and rectal cancer in North Wales. The present study is an extension of one previously reported which connected the high frequency of gastric cancer in Wales (Ashley and Davies, 1966a) with the genetic constitution of the Welsh people. It deals with the frequency and distribution of oesophageal cancer in the Principality of Wales; oesophageal cancer, like gastric cancer, has a very high mortality, and it is therefore reasonable to regard the mortality rates for this condition as representative of the incidence rates.