Although there has been progress in the treatment of cancer by radiation, surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, it is probable that efforts to prevent the disease have been more rewarding and effective than those made to improve treatment. Some occupational cancers can be prevented when the cause is identified. It is, however, often difficult to find the causes and sometimes even more difficult to remove them when they are known. Two hundred years after Percival Pott made the connection between cancer and the working environment, Professor E. Boyland reviews subsequent work on occupational cancers.
