Cancer risks among European migrants in São Paulo, Brazil.

Using both mortality and incidence data, cancer risk in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese migrants to São Paulo were compared with those in the Brazil-born population, and with those in their countries of origin. Italian and Spanish migrants show changes in cancer risks which are rather similar to those observed in migrants of the same origin in other parts of South America: they increase their rates of oropharyngeal, oesophageal, cervical and breast cancers and they decrease their rates of lung cancers. However, for cancer of the oesophagus, the changes are greater in São Paulo, where migrants acquire rates similar to those of the natives. For colon cancer, rates in Italian migrants decrease in the low risk area of São Paulo and increase in the high risk area of Argentina. Changes in Portuguese migrants are less evident: their rates of colorectal cancer remain high, and, as found for Japanese migrants in São Paulo, they also retain their higher risks of stomach cancer.