A study of the etiological factors in cancer of the mouth

Abstract

N recent years epidemiology hab played an I increasingly important role in the determination of factors that influence the development of cancer in man. Its principles, which have done so much to promote the understanding of arid prevention of infectious diseases, are now applied with equal vigor and hope to understanding of and prevention of chronic illnesses. In this field the ultimate goal of epidemiology is to establish ways by which a given disease process can be avoided. In searching for environmental and etiological factors, one must study all possible factors in order to determine the relationship o any of these factors to the disease process.