Latest Cancer in LA Volume Contains New Incidence & Mortality Tables for Industrial Corridor

September 21, 2021

LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health’s Louisiana Tumor Registry has published the latest report on cancer incidence and mortality in Louisiana – Cancer in Louisiana 2014-2018 (Volume 36), available here. It reports that the incidence rates for cancers of all sites combined among white and black men as well as black women in Louisiana were significantly higher than those for their national counterparts. However, the incidence rate for white women in the state did not differ significantly from the nationwide rate. Statewide, each of the four major race/sex groups had a significantly higher death rate for all cancer sites combined than its national counterpart. Lung, colorectal, and kidney mortality rates were significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for all four race-sex groups.

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While including statistics for the original 7-Parish Industrial Corridor for historical comparison, for the first time, the monograph includes a table for the expanded 11-Parish Industrial Corridor. The 11-Parish Industrial Corridor includes Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, and West Baton Rouge parishes. The incidence rates in the 11-parish Industrial Corridor for all cancers combined in white men and black men were significantly lower than the statewide rate. Rates for all cancers combined for white women and black women did not differ significantly from the Louisiana rates. Death rates for all cancers combined in the 11-parish Industrial Corridor were significantly lower than those for Louisiana among whites and black males; black females in the Industrial Corridor experienced the same mortality rates as their counterparts statewide.

Key findings include:

• New diagnoses of invasive cancer averaged 25,875 cases per year among Louisiana residents.

• For all Louisianans combined, the most frequently diagnosed cancers were breast (13.9% of all new cases), prostate (13.8%), lung (13.7%), colorectal (9.2%), and kidney (4.6%).

• Louisiana’s incidence rates for all sites combined among children and adolescents (aged 0–19) were lower than U.S. rates for both boys and girls, but only the rate for girls was significantly lower.

• The most common cancers among children and adolescents in Louisiana are central nervous system tumors.

• The incidence rates of tobacco-related cancers are significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for all race and sex groups.

• Incidence rates for obesity-related cancers are significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for the four major race-sex groups, with the exception of incidence for white women, which is lower than the national rate.

• Incidence rates for HPV-related cancers are significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for the four major race-sex groups.

• An average of 9,379 deaths were attributed to cancer each year, 2014-2018. Only heart disease caused more deaths (an average of 10,971 per year in Louisiana) than cancer.

• For all Louisiana residents combined, cancer mortality was highest for cancer of the lung (27.4% of all cancer deaths), colorectum (9.3%), pancreas (7.2%), breast (7.1%), and liver/bile duct (5.3%).

• In Louisiana’s 0–19 age group, the mortality rates were about the same in Louisiana and the U.S. for both boys and girls.

• The mortality rates of tobacco-related cancers are significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for all race and sex groups.

• The mortality rates for obesity-related cancers are significantly higher in Louisiana than in the U.S. for the four major race-sex groups.

• The mortality rate for HPV-related cancers is significantly higher for black men, black women and white women in Louisiana when compared to their national counterparts.

• Five-year relative survival for all cancers combined diagnosed in Louisiana between 2007 and 2017 showed a steady decline by summary stage at diagnosis for males (86.8%, 57.1%, and 24.0% for localized, regional, and distant stage, respectively) and females (86.9%, 64.0%, and 26.5%, respectively) of both races.

“Volume 36 of Cancer in Louisiana is the latest volume in more than two decades of monographs providing continuous monitoring of cancer rates in Louisiana,” remarks Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, CTR, Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health. “Our data underpin efforts to reduce suffering and death from cancer. These monographs reflect not only the commitment to high quality of the staff here at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health, but also the dedicated efforts of the staffs of our regional registries and hospital registries throughout the state, along with support from host institutions of regional registries, reporting health care facilities and providers.”

Cancer in Louisiana 2014-2018 (Volume 36) editors are faculty and staff in the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health and include Lauren Maniscalco, MPH; Meichin Hsieh, PhD, MSPH, CTR; Christina Lefante, MPH, CTR; Yong Yi, MS, PhD; Lisa Pareti, BS, RHIT, CTR; Brent Mumphrey, BS; Mary Anne Lynch, MPH; and Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, CTR.

“In comparing rates among geographic areas, it is important to keep in mind that a variety of factors can contribute to variations in cancer rates,” notes Registry Liaison and lead author Lauren Maniscalco. “Geographic differences should, therefore, be interpreted with caution and should be used to generate, not test, hypotheses. Also, keep in mind that rates based on small numbers may be unstable. For this reason, federal agencies and some states have guidelines for minimum counts. This issue of Cancer in Louisiana publishes rates based on sixteen or more cases for a five-year period, in conformity with the standards of the ‘Annual Report to the Nation,’ published by the American Cancer Society, the NAACCR, the CDC, and other surveillance agencies.”

The Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health is 1 of only 21 cancer registries in the United States included in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. SEER registries comprise an authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. The SEER Program registries routinely collect data on patient demographics, primary tumor site, tumor morphology and stage at diagnosis, the first course of treatment, and follow-up for vital status. The SEER Program is one of the most comprehensive sources of population-based information in the United States that includes the stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis and patient survival data. Additionally, the Louisiana Tumor Registry is also funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries.

For more information about LSU Health New Orleans Louisiana Tumor Registry, visit https://sph.lsuhsc.edu/louisiana-tumor-registry/.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSU Health New Orleans) educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.