It is likely that there are specific factors that are driving the higher, or lower, rates for specific areas across Australia. Many of these are known. For example, we know that smoking causes most cases of lung cancer. This means that historical smoking rates in an area would likely impact on the average risk of lung cancer in that area.
However, there are still many causes of cancer that are not understood. It is hoped that by describing the geographical patterns of cancer across Australia that the Australian Cancer Atlas will motivate efforts to better understand what the driving forces behind that variation are. Ultimately, the goal is to use this knowledge to reduce the level of geographical variation in the future.
