Racial and Geographic Factors in Tumor Incidence.

Studies of the distribution of diseases in different countries and racial groups have been a fruitful means of obtaining information about the etiology of specific processes. This is particularly true of cancer. This monograph represents a compilation of papers presented at the second symposium of the Pfizer Foundation at the Post Graduate Medical School of the University of Edinburgh in 1966. It tackles the problem of cancer research from the view point of man's response to his ever changing environment; it attempts to delineate factors which may alter the behavior of living tissues. Operating on the assumption that alterations in environment may influence the manner in which tissues become cancerous, representative studies of ethnic and geographic factors which possibly influence the incidence of certain tumors in their respective countries are presented by international authorities. The general problems of racial and geographic factors, criteria for malignancy, and examples of specific tumor