A new state dashboard lets policymakers across Kansas see mortality rates, risk factors and other detailed data about cancer in their communities, and it has good news and bad news about the disease in Douglas County.

The Cancer Data Dashboard was released on Tuesday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Bureau of Epidemiology and Public Health Informatics and the State Cancer Program. It’s publicly available and reveals a wide range of data, including the most prevalent cancers in the state, regions in the state with more risk factors for cancer and cancer occurrences and deaths by county.

The stats show that Douglas County has a higher incidence in cancer diagnoses compared to the state’s average. But the good news is that its mortality rate is lower than other counties.

Statewide, based on data compiled from 2017 to 2021, the cancer incidence rate is about 452 for every 100,000 people. In Douglas County, that number is 471 per 100,000 people. However, the statewide mortality rate is about 150 per 100,000 people; in Douglas County, it is 132 per 100,000 people, or 12% less.

The Cancer Data Dashboard can be a vital tool for cancer prevention and control efforts in Kansas, Jana Farmer, the cancer section director at the KDHE, said in a press release. The dashboard combines the most recent cancer data with data from the Kansas Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics and the Kansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to allow for a more comprehensive look at factors that could increase cancer rates.

Users can explore cancer data by sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, race, ethnicity and population density, and they can view data mapped across Kansas counties and regions. Farmer said combining all that in the dashboard would help stakeholders, researchers and policymakers in improving outcomes for people with the disease or at risk of it.

“By making this data accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, we can enhance decision-making and drive evidence-based strategies that improve cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship outcomes for Kansans,” Farmer said.

The dashboard also includes targets for certain statistics that could be improved. For example, the target rate for breast cancer screenings is 78%. According to its data, 78.2% of women over 65 statewide were screened in 2022, but for women ages 50-64, that rate was at 72% statewide.

Users can also explore which types of cancers are most prevalent in the state for men and women as well as people under 20 or under 15. From 2017 to 2021, the most common cancer type for men was prostate cancer, where 10,766 cases were diagnosed out of the 40,605 total cases of cancer for a rate of 26.5%. The most common cancer diagnosis for women was breast cancer, with 31% of the total of 38,360 diagnoses. In both men and women, the leading cause of cancer deaths was lung cancer.

Jill Bronaugh, the communications director for KDHE, said in an email to the Journal-World that kind of data can help individuals discern which types of cancer are most common, but it “does not speak to an individual’s risk.” The dashboard is primarily geared towards policymakers, health departments and organizations that can use the data to develop “programs or strategies that can reduce cancer morbidity and mortality.”

If you want to use the dashboard, you can follow the link here.