Cancer incidence in the Puerto Rican-born population of Long Island, New York.

BACKGROUND: There are apparently no published data on cancer incidence in the Puerto Rican-born populations of the northeastern United States. METHODS: Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated for 1980 through 1986 for the Puerto Rican-born population in Long Island (New York). RESULTS: Significantly reduced SIRs were found for males (SIR = 0.77) but not for females (SIR = 0.91), using expected numbers derived from incidence rates for all areas in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program (excluding Puerto Rico). Using incidence rates for Puerto Rico to obtain expected numbers, there was evidence for the retention of elevated SIRs for stomach cancer (both sexes) and for significantly elevated SIRs for lung cancer (both sexes), colon-rectum cancer (females), prostate cancer, and breast and uterine corpus cancer. Using rates for SEER areas, the SIRs for lung cancer approached 1.00, in contrast to other US Puerto Rican-born populations. CONCLUSION: The data indicate the need for surveys on smoking and other health-related behaviors in the population studied and provide further evidence for heterogeneity in cancer patterns in US Puerto Rican-born populations.