Cancer and Human Races

There is a general feeling that cancer does not behave in the same way in the different races of mankind. The aim of this report is to present facts which may serve as a basis for scientific discussion of this difference in behavior. This subject can be approached in various ways. In countries where reliable statistics are available, one can gather the figures on general incidence and site incidence of cancer and try to correlate them with the races inhabiting those countries. Statistics, however, are an invention of white men, and with the exception of Japan, reliable cancer statistics of the population as a whole can at present be expected only in white men9s countries. But this does not wholly exclude this type of study, for not only is the white race far from homogeneous, but a comparison between Japan and certain European countries reveals at once some interesting facts. It is obvious, however, that there would be a better chance of discovering racial influences on cancer, whether due to genetic factors or to habits of living, if we were in a position to compare its incidence in large and essentially diverse divisions of mankind rather than restricting ourselves to research within the limitations of a single one of these divisions, the white race. It is this wider aspect of the problem which I shall call more especially to your attention.