Now two research groups have published new “cancer atlases.” The American Cancer Society’s global report showed graphically that while the “risk of getting cancer is higher in the developed world … cancers in the developing world are more fatal.” Experts think higher incidence rates in rich countries spring partly from lifestyle choices, like physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and more-prolonged tobacco use. On the microlevel, the Ohio-based Cancer Prevention Institute’s atlas showed that breast cancer in that state occurs more frequently in white women but is more fatal for black women, probably due in part to poorer access to health care. Like Snow’s London water pump, many of these causes, having been located, can be eradicated.
