[Lung cancer in a rural area of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern without air pollution].

Abstract

Results of an epidemiological study of malignant neoplasms of the trachea, the bronchus and the lungs in a rural district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in North-Eastern Germany. The rate of disease in men and in women is determined by the proportion of age groups in the population in whom the probability of contracting the disease is highest. At first the incidence increased year by year, but now the rate of new cases seems to have levelled out and is now constant, i.e. approximately the same per annum. Despite constant or even increasing exposure e.g. to inhaled noxious substances via tobacco smoking, not all persons are equally susceptible. The levelling out of the incidence rate of cancer may be due to a genetically fixed susceptibility.