Thriving for Clues in Variations Seen in Mortality and Incidence of Cancer: Geographic Patterns, Temporal Trends, and Human Population Diversities in

To address the diverse features of the cancer epidemic, scientists have continually been seeking out different aspects of the cancer problem from cell proliferation at the microenvironment of the cancerous cells to large-scale diversities and variations seen in the incidence of cancer and prevalence of exposure to potential or known carcinogens in as many global locations and as many occasions as possible. The variations of cancer occurrence in the three dimensions of place, time, and human population have been the pillar of hypothesis formation in understanding the diverse features of the cancer epidemic. The aim of this chapter is to address the methodologic issues pertaining to changing of cancer incidence and mortality in the three dimensions. For each dimension; a brief description of available information on the cancer incidence and mortality is presented, the sources of available data are introduced, the indicators to be used and their inter-pretabilities are addressed, and the use of new technologies pertaining to that dimension are discussed.