Data-Driven Story of Cancer in the USA

What is Cancer ?

Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths in the United States, exceeded only heart diseases. One of every four deaths in the United States is due to Cancer. Every sixth death in the world is due to cancer. Progress against many other causes of deaths and demographic drivers of increasing population size, life expectancy and — particularly in higher-income countries — aging populations mean that the total number of cancer deaths continues to increase. This is a very personal topic to many and nearly everyone knows or has lost someone dear to them from this collection of diseases. Cancers are defined by the National Cancer Institute as a collection of diseases in which abnormal cells can divide and spread to nearby tissue. Cancers can arise in many parts of the body – leading to a range of cancer types.

How Many People Alive Today Have Ever Had Cancer?

More than 15.5 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive on January 1, 2016, most of whom were diagnosed many years ago and have no current evidence of cancer.

How has the progression of Cancer cases been in the past 5 to 6 years?

The above visualization provides us with the cumulative count of all cancer patients state wise for the years 2015 to 2019. From this we can observe that the maximum number of cancer cases are in the state of California followed by Florida, Texas, New York.

How is the prevalence of cancer by type and also by state?

When broken down by type of cancer we see that breast cancer is the most prevalent form. Following breast cancer are Lung and Bronchus, Prostate and colon & rectum cancer.

Risk Factors for Breast cancer :

Potentially modifiable factors that increase risk include weight gain after the age of 18 and/or being overweight or obese (for postmenopausal breast cancer); menopausal hormone therapy (combined estrogen and progestin); alcohol consumption; and physical inactivity.

Risk Factors for Lung and Bronchus cancer:

Cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer; 81% of lung cancer deaths in the US are still caused by smoking. Risk increases with both quantity and duration of smoking. Cigar and pipe smoking also increase risk.

Risk factors for Prostate cancer:

Well-established risk factors for prostate cancer are increasing age, African ancestry, a family history of the disease, and certain inherited genetic conditions.Genetic studies suggest that strong familial predisposition may be responsible for 5%-10% of prostate cancers. There is accumulating evidence that smoking increases the risk of fatal prostate cancer and excess body weight increases risk of aggressive and fatal prostate cancer.

Risk Factors for Colon and Rectum cancer:

More than half (55%) of colorectal cancers in the US are attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. Modifiable factors that increase risk include obesity, physical inactivity, long-term smoking, high consumption of red or processed meat, low calcium intake, moderate to heavy alcohol consumption, and very low intake of fruits and vegetables and whole-grain fiber.

Analysis and prediction of cancer cases in the states of California, Florida, Texas and New York

From the above visualization we can see that the number of cases of prostate cancer vary largely each year and a sharp drop in prostate cancer cases is expected to happen in the year 2020. Along with prostate cancer the number of cases of Lung and Bronchus and Lymphoma are expected to decrease. On the other hand cases for Female Breast, Colon and Rectum, Melanoma, Uterine corpus, Leukemia and Uterine/ Cervix are expected to increase. Also the cases for Urinary Bladder are expected to remain the same.

In Florida for the year 2020 the number of cases for Female Breast, Prostate, Melanoma, Urinary Bladder, Lymphoma, Uterine Corpus and Uterine/Cervix are expected to increase. Whereas the number of cases for Lung and Bronchus, Leukemia are expected to decrease. Moreover the expected cases for Colon and Rectum will remain same.

In Texas for the year 2020 the number of cases for Female Breast, Prostate, Lung and Bronchus, Colon and Rectum, Lymphoma, Leukemia, Urinary Bladder, Melanoma, Uterine Corpus, Uterine/Cervix are expected to increase. This implies that the overall number of cancer cases for all major cancer types are going to increase in the state of Texas for the year 2020.

For 2020 the state of New York is estimated to have an increase in the number of cancer patients for Female Breast, Prostate, Urinary Bladder, Lymphoma, Leukemia and Uterine/Cervix. Whereas there is an estimated decrease in the number of cancer patients for Lung and Bronchus, Colon and Rectum and Melanoma.

Cancer cases per 1000 people according to state for years 2015 to 2019

As the state populations are different we cannot compare the extent of the number of cases in the United States therefore we visualized the number of cancer cases per 1000 people in a particular state. Analyzing the data for the past 5 years we can observe that the number of cancer cases is more prevalent in the eastern part of the united states. To get a more clearer idea we plot the cumulative average of the past 5 years.

From the above cumulative map we can see that the number of cancer cases per 1000 people is the highest in the state of Maine with (6.66 per 1000) followed by Virginia with (6.54 per 1000). The most minimum number of cancer cases per 1000 people are in the state of Utah with (3.66 per 1000).

Who is at Risk of Developing Cancer?

We see that in the USA majority of cancers occur in older populations. Approximately 70% of cancer cases occur in those aged over 50. In the US more than 20% of people older than 70 years are living with cancer according to the estimates.

Number of Males and Females Diagnosed with Cancer

From the above visualization we can see that during the years 2015 to 2019 more number of females were diagnosed with cancer than the number of males.

New Cases Vs New Deaths due to Cancer each Year

The overall cancer incidence rates and death rates show an steady increase from the years 2015 to 2016. This is happening for two big reasons.

1) The first one is that the world population is increasing and with it the number of annual deaths and cases.

2) The second big reason is that the world made rapid progress against causes of death that once killed people early in life – especially infectious diseases. This means that the world population is aging and more people are dying of causes that kill people at an older age, like cancer.

Because the world is getting richer and fewer are dying an early death we can expect the number of people dying from cancer to increase further.

Death Vs Survival Statistic

Cancer deaths are rising: in 1990 5.7 million died from cancer; by 2016 this had increased to 8.9 million. But it’s also true that the world today has more people, and more older people, who are more likely to die from cancer. From the above visualization we can see that almost 50% to 60% cancer deaths are attributed to Lung and Bronchus, Colon and Rectum and Breast among the top 10 cancers displayed above.

To plot the mortality rates for each cancer based on years we consider the total population as 1000 and then visualize the values.

Lavender Ribbon Learnings

1) From the above data and visualizations we can see that Men are more prone to cancer than women.

2) The mortality rate of men is higher than that of women, therefore men are 3% more likely to die due to cancer than women.

3) The number of cancer deaths and incidences are likely to increase in future.

4) The major cause of cancer most likely is due to bad lifestyle habits.

5) In a world full of discrimination Cancer shows absolutely no bias based on Religion, Sex or Color everyone is vulnerable to cancer therefore adopting good diet and healthy lifestyle is the only way to keep cancer at bay.

Thank You

References:

1) https://www.cancer.org/

2) https://ourworldindata.org/cancer