dr. henderson was asked to find out. dr. henderson: there was a friend of mine working in taiwan at the time who published an elegant study showing that hepatitis b virus looked like a common explanation in taiwan for liver cancer. so we did studies with them, collected blood from about 10,000 people, tested the blood back here in the united states, and followed them and demonstrated that the same virus was causing liver cancer in china. and from that evolved a series of national vaccination programs. it's just such breakthroughs that have intensified data collection efforts around the world. dr. bernstein: we collect information on the type of tumor and all of the characteristics of the cancer, the stage, the cell type, the extent of disease, laterality, anything we can get about that. we also collect information about the individual who is diagnosed with cancer-- their gender, male or female, their race or ethnic background, their age, where they were born, if we can get that information, what their last occupation was. we'