Cancer Incidence in Five Continents - v.7

The aim in presenting data on cancer occurrence in this series of publications was clearly set out in the introduction to the first volume, published in 1966 (Doll et al).

The authors drew attention to the great rewards in understanding diseases aetiology to be derived from the study of disease frequency in different communities, in different areas, and over time.

Mentioning the available sources of data for this type of study (mortality rates, and proportional frequencies of cancers from clinical or pathological series), they concluded that: 'the most valuable data are, undoubtedly, the rates obtained by recording the occurrence of every case of cancer over a specific period'.

The seventh volume continues the pattern laid down at the start of this international collaborative project, to produce reliable and accurate data on cancer incidence which can be compared with confidence between populations from any part of the world.

The data presented are collected. coded and analyzed in a standard manner and are included only after an objective assessment of quality. This latest volume appears as two separate publications, the traditional volume, presenting not only the data but also the text to help in the understanding and interpretation of the material and provide information on the individual registries, and a separate publication (CB2) in the new IARC CancerBase series - two diskettes containing the databases, a Windows -based software for its analysis (including graphic displays) and a users' guide.

The efforts to build up cancer registration in areas of the world for which very little information on cancer occurrence is available are bearing fruit, and some of the results appear in this volume.

There are data from new cancer registries in Africa, Asia (including, for the first time, data from Korea and Vietnam), and from South America (with Argentina and Uruguay appearing for the first time).