Scotland has topped the UK league table for new cases of cancer and deaths from the disease, show new figures released by the Office for National Statistics.
Scotland had the highest overall incidence of the disease between 2002 and 2004, with 446 new cases in men for every 100,000 of the population, and 379 in women.
The numbers of new cases were around 10% higher than rates in the rest of the UK.
In Wales, the equivalent figures were 450 and 366, respectively, compared with 394 and 338 in England, and 394 and 345, respectively, in Northern Ireland.
Overall, 278,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed every year in the UK, and 154,000 died of the disease.
But Scotland also had the highest death rates from the disease, with a toll of 262 among men and 82 among women. Death rates for both sexes were around 15% higher than those for the UK, overall.
In Wales cancer took the lives of 233 men and 165 women. In England 221 men and 156 women per 100,000 of the population died of cancer between 2002 and 2004.
The figures for Northern Ireland were similar to those of England with 394 new diagnosed among men and 345 among women, with 226 and 156 deaths, respectively
Prostate and breast cancers were the most common types in men and women, respectively. But rates of breast cancer were almost 30% higher than those of prostate cancer.
Lung and bowel cancers were the next most common forms in both sexes, and lung cancer produced the highest death toll from cancer.
In Scotland, lung cancer diagnoses were 35% higher than those in the rest of the UK, and 50% higher in women.
Commenting on the figures, Ruth Yates, head of statistical information at Cancer Research UK, said that while the rates of new diagnoses had remained relatively stable, the fall in the number of smokers had had a noticeable impact on death rates.
"Higher smoking rates in Scotland account for much of the difference in cancer rates between England and Scotland," she said "It is worth noting that rates of lung cancer in Scotland have fallen in recent years at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world," she added.
Cancer incidence and mortality in the UK 2002-2004 is available at:
www.statistics.gov.uk