The table shows the rate of melanoma by gender. mc026-1.jpg consider the number of males who were diagnosed with melanoma in 2005. what quantity does this number represent?

The right answer is In 2005, 27.99 males out of every 100,000 were diagnosed with melanoma.

This number represents the incidence of melanoma (Skin cancer).

In epidemiology, incidence refers to the number of new cases of illness that have occurred during a given period of time. An increase in the incidence makes it possible for example to note an epidemic, even a pandemic. This data should not be confused with the prevalence, which refers to the number of people sick at a given time, or the incidence rate, which allows a better comparison of populations, by dividing the incidence by a representative sample of population (for example the number of cases per 100,000 people). The unit used to express the incidence is the number of new cases per person-time (example: 75 person-years).

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."