Table 1. Digestive cancer diagnosed between 1980 and 1997 in 12 French Communes.

		N=81 268
	N	%
Level 1: patient characteristics
Age (years)
<61	24 197	29.77
61–70	11 910	14.66
70–78	13 006	16.00
>78	32 155	39.57
Gender
Men	48 741	59.98
Women	32 527	40.02
Year of diagnosis
1980	1653	2.03
1981	1690	2.08
1982	2284	2.81
1983	2424	2.98
1984	2450	3.01
1985	2436	3.00
1986	2519	3.10
1987	2554	3.14
1988	2516	3.10
1989	5400	6.64
1990	5541	6.82
1991	5990	7.37
1992	6331	7.79
1993	6405	7.88
1994	6976	8.58
1995	7892	9.71
1996	8039	9.89
1997	8168	10.05
Site
Oesophagus	7813	9.61
Stomach	11 619	14.30
Colon	28 010	34.47
Rectum	18 080	22.25
Small intestine bowel	1038	1.28
Liver	5797	7.13
Gall bladder	2893	3.56
Pancreas	6018	7.41
Departments a
Calvados (1980–1997)	10 169	12.51
Côte d'Or (1980–1997)	8489	10.45
Doubs (1989–1997)	3705	4.56
Hérault (1995–1997)	2418	2.98
Isère (1989–1997)	8423	10.36
Loire Atlantique (1991–1997)b	3885	4.78
Manche (1996–1997)	2098	2.58
Bas-Rhin (1980–1997)	17 122	21.07
Haut-Rhin (1989–1997)	6781	8.34
Saône et Loire (1982–1997)	10 410	12.81
Somme (1989–1997)	4418	5.44
Tarn (1989–1997)	3350	4.12
Last known status (at 1 January 2002)
Censored	15.229	18.74
Death	61.820	76.07
Lost of follow up	4.243	5.19
Level 2: Commune characteristics
Distance to nearest reference cancer care center (km)
<10	21 621	26.60
10–30	13 924	17.13
30–50	13 816	17.00
50–70	12 569	15.47
70–90	9235	11.36
>90	10 103	12.43

^aPeriod contributions are shown in brackets.

^bColorectal cancer only.