[Incidence and post-mortem frequency of malignant tumors of the stomach, colon, rectum, and lung (author's transl)].

A method for determining the incidence of malignancies of the stomach, colon, rectum, and lungs has been based on the frequency of the tumors in the autopsy material of the Institute of Pathology of the University of Heidelberg for the period 1900 to 1975. The main goal of this model is time independent selection of autopsy material indicated by an almost constant pattern for sex, average age at death, number of inhabitants, and number of autopsies. There is a relationship between incidence and autopsy frequency only when coding the diagnoses independently of their contributions to the cause of death. The results show a nearly constant incidence of stomach cancer, a steady incidence of colon and rectal cancer which, however, differs for men and women, and a large increase in the incidence of lung cancer.