New figures show cancer claims more victims in Dublin than anywhere else in the country.
Statistics from the National Cancer Registry reveal that almost 400 new cases per 100,000 people were diagnosed in the city and county between 1998 and 2000.
This compares to a national average of 363 per 100,000.
Analysis of the figures also showed that Co Clare remains at the other end of the scale, with the lowest number of newly diagnosed cases and death rates in the country.
Of all cancers, lung cancer claimed more lives in Dublin than elsewhere. The capital also ranked in the top five for new cases of breast and prostate cancer during the same period.
Smoking, lifestyle and cancer-screening programmes are being blamed for the higher incidence and death rates in the capital and surrounding county, Dr Harry Comber, NCR director, told the Irish Examiner.
In Dublin - where the bulk of treatment services are concentrated - survival rates, apart from lung cancer, were slightly better than elsewhere in the country.
Carlow and Kildare recorded the greatest number of cancer deaths, 225 and 224 deaths per 100,000 respectively, compared to a national death rate of 203 per 100,000. Limerick had the third-highest death rate from cancer.