An introductory review is presented of the uses and limitations of epidemiological methods for investigating cancer etiology. Uses of epidemiological methods can be grouped under three main headings: search af etiological indications, test of etiological hypotheses, and assessment of the effect of large scale prophylactic or therapeutic treatments. The search of etiological indications is chiefly performed through an analysis of mortality and/or morbidity data: time and space distribution of cancers are usually studied and sometimes an investigation on time-space association is added. On this basis etiological hypotheses are formulated and tested using retrospective studies and/or prospective studies: typical examples of these are found in oncological literature. Assessment of the effect of large scale prophylactic or therapeutic treatments, where feasible, is a further check on the soundness of an etiological hypothesis. Limitations intrinsic to the epidemiological approach (as to any merely observational approach) can be partly overcome through close linkage between epidemiologic and experimental oncology; use of mathematical models to interpret on a common basis data from epidemiological and laboratory studies can make easier this task.
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