1978 Volume 5 Issue 5 Pages 55-74
In order to analyze the pattern of the geographical and age distributions of the cancer death, the correlation coefficients between any pairs of cancer mortality rates of each site were calculated, using the data on cancer for 18 sites in males and 19 sites in females over the three periods, i.e., (1) from 1958 to 1962, (2) from 1963 to 1967, and (3) from 1968 to 1971. Then factor analysis by varimax method was performed on 54 × 54 correlation matrix for males and 57 × 57 matrix for females. As a result, five factors are extracted, which are commonly recognized in both males and females. Among the five factors extracted, the first one attracted us most, since the fact that bone, bladder, skin and buccal cancers as well as cancers of genital organs excluding ovary clustered in one group suggests a possible relation of those cancers to high atmospheric temperature.
