OBJECTIVETo draw a chorochromatic atlas of mortality on China Cancer Database in order to display the geographical distribution of selected diseases in China and to identify its demographic and disease-specific patterns in the 1990's.

METHODSThe source of data was from nationwide cause-of-death surveys conducted in the 1990's. Standardized rates were computed by direct method using the population age distribution in 1964 as the standard of weights. Inverse distance weight (IDW) was applied as the method of interpolation with the help of Arcview system to draw a choropleth map of cancer mortality.

RESULTSThe IDW maps of cancer mortality shows a continuous and smooth variation, especially compared with maps drawn by filling method.

CONCLUSIONWith the application of inverse distance weight interpolation, it seemed feasible to draw continuous map of cancer on sampling data.