Cancer epidemiology in the former USSR is predominantly descriptive and depends heavily on cancer registration. Cancer epidemiologists have spent most of the last 35 years "correcting" the serious inconsistencies in reported incidence data, as official cancer statistics are notoriously incomplete and inaccurate. Professional standards of Soviet cancer epidemiologists reflect the prevailing conditions they have worked in, notably, severe censorship, bans on publishing, lack of computers for compilation of data or analysis, loose recordkeeping practices in institutions, restricted access to scientific literature, and limited opportunities for training in biostatistics and epidemiology. In the eyes of a new generation of young scientists, modern epidemiology is not an attractive discipline. Despite having one of the largest and most diverse populations in the world, the scientific productivity of ex-Soviet cancer epidemiologists is small. The increasing number of publications from the former USSR in international journals and of ongoing projects is an encouraging sign that cancer epidemiology in the republics that comprised the Soviet Union may be emerging from its prolonged infancy. Prospects depend on the ability of researchers to weather current economic and political disturbances.