ABSTRACT
The popular notion that cancer can strike any one at any time, in democratic fashion, is largely a myth. Most of the literature-both research and clinical-points to the fact that certain pre-existing conditions must ob tain before the disease is contracted. Because of the long latency period during which the symptoms of the disease are not yet overtly manifest (some cancers can take up to twenty years from the time of exposure to the triggering substance), the determination of cause and effect is particularly difficult.
