How are mutagenic agents related to cancer incidence in a population? Is cancer a disease transmitted to the individual offspring?
An exposition of a population to mutagenic agents (for instance, the people living in the surrounds of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and exposed to the radiation from the nuclear accident in 1986) increases the cancer incidence in that population. This takes place because the mutagenic agents increase the rate of mutation and the probability of mutant cells to proliferate in pathological manner (cancer).
Cancer itself isn't a hereditarily transmissible disease. The Genetic predispositions for the development of cancer, however, can be inherited.