Cancer in the Heartland

I'm not sure I buy the idea of a cancer "epidemic." In the words of the author of the article you linked to,

"For the last few years, Iowa has had the second-highest rate of cancer in the nation, and is only one of two US states where cancer is increasing." (Pretty sure she wanted to say "... one of only two ..." - but I don't want to be the grammar police.)

If there are only two states - Iowa and, as it turns out, Utah - where the incidence of cancer is rising, that doesn't seem like an epidemic. In fact, with more of us living longer and cancer detection methods improving, I thought it was remarkable that cancer incidence is stable or falling in the vast majority of the U.S.

Yes , I too found that bizarre since every day we read about the increasing cancer rates (of all types, but most notably colon cancer) among young people and not just in 2 states.
Previous forum discussions have suggested that it is a result of increased screening at younger ages and not an actual increase in cancer rates themselves.
However, early detection is the key to success for beating any kind of cancer so if a perceived ‘increase’ is the trade-off, I’m fine with that. Hopefully, a sustained decrease in cancer deaths should follow!
I posted the article since there’s been a lot of talk on the forum recently about the possible causes of cancer, and the ‘wholesome’ lifestyle of a farmer seems to be in direct contradiction to that. Pesticides, insecticides, and who knows what else are probably to blame. Thanks,
Phil

Without reading about the mentioned epidemic, I am sure that cancer cases are rising all over the world due to environmental factors - bad air, polluted water, herbicides, pesticides, estrogen-like substances, plastic micro particles, radiation and also our life choices and modern lifestyle - stress being one of the mayor factors also.

Silicon Valley is locally known among doctors and epidemiologists as "cancer valley" BTW, so... I doubt Iowa is any worse XP.

PS: I hope Phil that you were joking about "wholesome" life of a farmer in the USA ?!

Um…yes… the quote marks were a dead giveaway 😏

Sorry Phil , I had exhausting and crazy day today, I can hardly see a person ahead of me, let alone quotation marks XP. Would you please, please forgive my inexcusable misreading 😉 ??? *teehee

I think the rise of cancer comes with better and improved diagnosis of it. It goes along with better treatments as well.

Did not the death rate from cancer go down? I think this is more of an important number than rise in diagnosis.

Example,
Several years ago Mayo Jacksonville was not promoting routine PSA tests. Saying false positive, the role of BPM on PSA etc. Then several years ago my Mayo PCP was telling me Mayo has changed it's policy on PSA tests. He went on to explain that the number of stage 4 cancer diagnosis had skyrockted and the rise back to the time they were not recommending routine and on going PSA tests.

So doctors were not diagnosing prostate cancer at it's early stages where treatments and treatment success prognosis was/is much better.

Just to clarify, the article @heavyphil linked to was focused solely on the state of Iowa, which is one of just two states in the U.S. where the incidence of cancer has increased over the past 5 years. In 49 of 51 states (including D.C.) the incidence of cancer has either been steady or has fallen.
https://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/incidencerates/index.php?stateFIPS=00&areatype=state&cancer=001&stage=999&race=00&sex=0&age=001&year=0&type=incd&sortVariableName=rate&sortOrder=desc

https://www.mskcc.org/msk-news/2024-issue-2
A more recent analysis paints a different picture in the younger demographic; but as has been pointed out, death rates from cancer ARE dropping even as incidence increases