Blood, 1953, Vol. 8, No. 8, pp. 693-702.
© 1953 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Age, Sex, and Race Selection at Death from Leukemia and
the Lymphomas
ALEXANDER G. GILLIAM M.D.1
1 Epidemiology Section, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of
Health, U. S. Public Health Service, Bethesda, Md.
Attention has been called to the distinction between "age incidence", which
is a measure of risk, and "age distribution" which is not such a measure except
under certain unusual circumstances which probably do not exist for any hospital
experience in the United States. Examples to illustrate this distinction were
drawn from death data for deaths attributed to leukemia and the lymphomas
in the United States in 1949.
The sex and race selection have been recorded for the types of leukemia and
lymphoma separable in the sixth revision of The International List of Causes of
Death. The age selection at death attributed to the numerically important of
these causes has also been presented.
To determine the age, sex, and race selection (incidence) of these diseases,
with full confidence in adequacy of their classification, will require a cooperative
study designed to apply uniform diagnostic technics to all cases occurring in
some definable population such as a large city or a state. Data derived from
individual hospitals or from literature summations are generally inadequate for
this purpose.
Submitted on December 22, 1952
Accepted on January 26, 1953
