Ecological approach to cancer epidemiology

Man's influence on the 'environment' is such that it is now largely a product of his social activities. In turn the resulting wide-ranging environmental changes have had a profound effect on the structure of human pathology to which the term 'pathomorphosis' is applied. Lung cancer and stomach cancer are cited as examples of the close links between socially-determined environmental changes (e.g. industrialization, urbanization, changing diets, cigarette smoking) and concrete pathomorphic manifestations.