greater reductions were observed for men than for women, with \# indicating a better outcome for women.

Average male rates declined significantly more than the average female in Australia, England and Wales, the Netherlands and the United States (15--74 age group). Conversely, in Japan and Spain, female rates fell significantly more than their male counterparts, also in the age bands 55--75+.

Amongst the 45--54 age group, males did better than the females in Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States; in the 55--64 age group, in Italy and the Netherlands; but the reverse was true in Japan for the 54--75+, where women had the biggest reductions.

Amongst the 65--74 years old, male rates declined more in Australia, England and Wales, the Netherlands and the United States, and, for the 75+lesser extent also for women, as the Anglo-Welsh male average (15--74) rates declined significantly more than every MDC except for the Netherlands, whilst Anglo-Welsh women did significantly better than Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.

The hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between gender rates can also be rejected for Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States, where male rates declined more than female rates, whilst the reverse was true for Japan and Spain.

Finally, the hypothesis that there would be no significant association between reduced cancer deaths and proportional increases in GDPEH can be strongly rejected.

However, we cannot explain the changes found and country-specific research is required. There are a number of further intriguing findings:

First, in general, male cancer deaths