Thursday, September 22, 2016

Which U.S. counties have the highest rates of breast cancer? (searchable map)

The 2016 Race for the Cure, an annual fundraiser for the Oregon and Southwest Washington chapter of the Susan G. Komen cancer organization, happens Sunday in Portland. For the occasion, we've created an interactive map that shows the incidence of breast cancer in every U.S. county for which data were available.

We've also compiled data on other forms of cancer for comparison. Nationally, an average of 224,504 women were diagnosed with breast cancer each year from 2009 through 2013, the latest years reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's 123 new cases per 100,000 women, the CDC estimates. Rates of breast cancer vary considerably across the country.

They range from 51 cases per 100,000 in Pulaski County, Ga., to almost 500 cases per 100,000 in Williamsburg, Va. The CDC adjusts all rates to account for variations in age profiles across counties. Multnomah County was slightly above the national average at 137 cases per 100,000 women. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, according to the CDC's Cancer Statistics Working Group.

It's also: the single most common cause of death from cancer among Latinas; the second most common cause among white, African American and Asian American women; and the third most common cause for Native American and Alaska native women.

Search the interactive map here.

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