U.S. Average

Incidence (per 100,000): 458.2
Deaths (per 100,000): 185.7

U.S. Percentiles for Quality of Care

75th Percentile: 57.69
50th Percentile: 50.00
25th Percentile: 27.28

Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for close to more than 560,000 deaths annually.

Cancer is not a single disease and but rather numerous diseases each with their own causes and risk factors, including behavioral choices on the part of an individual. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, smoking will cause close to 170,000 cancers deaths and that one-third of cancer deaths related to obesity, inactivity and nutrition could have been prevented.

Incidence (per 100,000) is a ratio of the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer in a given year to the total population. It is expressed in terms of the number of cancer diagnoses per 100,000 so that comparisons can be made.

Deaths (per 100,000) is a measure of number of deaths from cancer in a given year. It is expressed in terms of the number of deaths per 100,000 so that comparisons can be made.

The overall quality of cancer care is a measure adapted from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ)'s State Snapshots project. It summarizes the performance of state's health care system relative to national average on a broad range of quality measures specific to the treatment of cancer,

It is based on a scale of 0 to 100. A score of 0 would mean a state scored below the national average on all quality measures. A score of 100 would mean a state scored above the national average on all quality measures.

A potential 13 quality measures are included in the indicator (some data are not available for every state), based on rates of screening and mortality for specific cancers.

For more on the AHRQ's methodology click here

Click here for sources