The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was established in 1965 by the World Health Assembly as an independent organization within the framework of the World Health Organization. The Agency conducts epidemiologic studies in several countries and biological and chemical research in the Agency's laboratories in Lyon. Since 1969, IARC has been administering a program on the evaluation of the carcinogenic risk of chemicals, complex mixtures, and other agents to humans, leading to the production of critically evaluated-and highly acclaimed-monographs. The Agency also collaborates with the International Association of Cancer Registries in assembling and publishing data concerning cancer incidence around the world. Therefore, IARC is in a unique position to assess the burden of cancer, to evaluate the current state of our knowledge about the causes of cancer and to quantify the existing potential for cancer control.
Dr. L. Tomatis, the Director of IARC, has marshalled the resources of the Agency to produce a concise, authoritative and highly readable volume that summarizes the current state of knowledge about the patterns of cancer occurrence in various populations around the world and the determinants of these patterns. The book has 4 major parts. Part I deals with the descriptive epidemiology of cancer at 35 different sites, but also addresses several important conceptual and methodological issues. Part I1 covers exhaustively the causes of cancer-from single environmental exposures such as drugs, alcohol and radiation to tobacco, other complex exposures, viruses, diet, air pollution, endogenous hormones and reproductive and psycho-social factors. Part I11 examines the effectiveness of screening as a tool for early cancer detection by site, for 14 different cancer sites. Finally, Part IV provides quantitative estimates of the effects of measures of primary prevention and strategies for early detection.
In a volume packed with information drawn from literally thousands of studies, each reader may find some statements with which he or she could disagree (this reviewer does not fully agree with the attribution of liver cancer risk among the identified risk factors, namely hepatitis viruses, tobacco, alcohol and aflatoxin). However, the book is highly informative, extremely well structured and remarkably free of dogmatism. The Editor, his distinguished co-editors and the many contributors and outside reviewers should be congratulated for their efforts. Their book will be a valuable reference for all health professionals and an ideal text for courses dealing with cancer epidemiology and control. Perhaps equally important, the book is a tribute to epidemiology and preventive medicine, by highlighting their contribution and their potential in the fight against cancer.