Abstract
Social gradients in cancer show complex patterns between and within countries (as documented in Chapters 5 and 6), which are driven by a multifaceted and concurrent interplay of different factors. Although all-cancer incidence rates are generally higher in more developed countries and generally increase with increasing levels of national socioeconomic development, the gradient is less clear for all-cancer mortality rates. Caution is certainly needed when interpreting cancer patterns between countries, because these are characterized by substantial heterogeneity and several exceptions. Within countries, however, mortality for the majority of cancer types is disproportionately higher in groups with low socioeconomic status (SES) for almost all countries globally.