The preceding decade has seen the production of many cancer at­ lases. As with other techniques of descriptive epidemiology, these atlases have proved valuable in identifying areas for further re­ sear~h employing the methods of analytical epidemiology. How­ ever, the various cancer atlases produceq to date have failed to pro­ vide a common format of presentation, which has limited their comparability and frustrated in a large measure any attempt to compare risks across national boundaries, boundaries which in terms of environmental exposures may have little meaning. In this volume, many features of cancer atlases are presented and there are discussions on the areas where moves towards standardization could greatly increase the utility of the finished product. In contrast to topographic maps, i. e., representations of natural and man-made features on the surface of the earth, thematic maps concentrate on displaying the geographical occurrence and varia­ tion of a single phenomenon - the "theme" of the map. The link between thematic and base mapping is rather strong as the themat­ ic information to be depicted is of greater value if displayed on an accurate base map. Further, the thematic map generally uses statis­ tical data which are frequently related to internal administrative boundaries for enumeration. The major reason for constructing a thematic map is to discover the spatial structure of the theme of the map and to then relate the structure to some aspects of the under­ lying environment.

Inhalt

General Aspects and Techniques of Mapping.- Historical Evolution of Disease Mapping in General and Specifically of Cancer Mapping.- Problems of Cancer Mapping.- Availability and Completeness of Cancer Registration Worldwide.- Cancer Morbidity Atlas of the Saarland: An Outline of the Model Project for the Analysis of Health and Environmental Data in the Saarland.- Relative Value of Incidence and Mortality Data in Cancer Research.- Methods of Age Adjustment.- Current Status of Cancer Registration in Europe.- Current Status of Cancer Registration in the Federal Republic of Germany and Prospects for Further Development.- Analysis of Spatial Aggregation.- Role of Advanced Statistical Techniques in Cancer Mapping.- Danish Cancer Registry 1942-1980: Some Aspects of Cancer Registration.- Modern Cancer Atlases.- Recent Cancer Atlas of the Federal Republic of Germany.- Cancer Mapping as an Epidemiologic Research Resource in China.- Scottish Cancer Incidence Atlas 1985.- Italian Atlas of Cancer Mortality.- Geographical Patterns of Cancer Mortality in Spain.- Cancer Mortality Statistics: Availability and Quality Aspects of Mortality Data Worldwide.- Geographical Distribution of Cancer in Poland.- The New United States Cancer Atlas.- Cancer Maps of Finland: An Example of Small Area-Based Mapping.- Atlas of Cancer Incidence in Norway 1970-1979.- Epidemiology and International Comparability.- Impact of Cancer Atlases on Cancer Epidemiology: Experience of the Danish Atlas of Cancer Incidence.- International Comparability of Coding Cancer Data: Present State and Possible Improvement by ICD-10.- Cancer Mortality Atlas of the European Economic Community.- Cancer Mapping: Overview and Conclusions.