The incidence of colon, breast and prostate cancer in Italian migrants to Victoria, Australia

The incidence of cancers of the colon, breast and prostate in Australian and Italian born residents of Victoria, Australia were compared with the incidence of these cancers in Italy. Italian migrants' rates were between those of the Australian born and those from Italian cancer registries. Italian migrants' rates for colon cancer (males 23.1 and females 15.8 per 100 000) differed from rates in Ragusa (males 12.1 and females 10.4 per 100 000) but not from rates in Parma or Varese. The migrants' breast cancer rate was similar to the rate in Ragusans (48.7 vs 46.7) and their prostate cancer rate of 27.3 was higher than all Italian registries. Modelling identified that Italian migrants' rates by age were intermediate to Australian and Italian rates, but indistinguishable from cancer rates in Ragusa, except for colon cancer which demonstrated an interaction with age.