Epidemiological studies of the worldwide incidence of cancers have identified striking differences among countries and population groups. For example, the incidence of and death rates for skin cancer are much higher in Australia and New Zealand than in the Scandinavian countries—presumably because of the marked differences between these two regions in total annual hours of exposure to sunlight. The importance of environmental influences is highlighted by comparing the incidence of and death rates for cancers among populations in different geographic regions. For example, prostate and colon cancer rates in Japanese persons living in Japan differ from the rates in Japanese ...(100 of 22361 words)