Cancer in migrants to Australia: extending the descriptive epidemiological data.

Australia experienced a large influx of European migrants during the period 1950-1975. The descriptive epidemiological data on cancer rates within the major migrant groups, reviewed here, provide strong evidence of environmental and behavioral influences on the etiology of various cancers. The opportunity to extend the conventional type of data analysis, to include an examination of the effect of duration of residence upon cancer risk, provides further insight into cancer etiology. The possibilities of further exploring the descriptive data are also discussed, and both the desirability and the timeliness of mounting analytical studies of the Southern European migrants to Australia are emphasized.