Bladder cancer rates are significantly higher in most of New England and three other northeastern states than in the rest of the nation, and researchers in the region as well as at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., are working to determine why.
Dr. Debra Sliverman, an institute epidemiologist, said her organization is collaborating on a study with the health departments of the three northern New England states and Massachusetts as well as researchers at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.
Dr. Sai Cherala, state epidemiologist in New Hampshire, said the New Hampshire Division of Public Health and the New Hampshire State Cancer Registry, based out of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, have been working on the study, though she added that results won't be available for some time.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, in 2004 - the latest year for which statistics are available - New Hampshire residents with urinary bladder cancers numbered 45.7 per 100,000, while nationally the number was 37.3 per 100,000.
Also in 2004, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were among the states with the highest age-adjusted incident rates for bladder cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Rhode Island was at the top of the list, with a rate of 30.4; Maine and Vermont were at 27.8 each; and New Hampshire is at 27.4.
Silverman said rates of bladder cancer in New England have been higher than in the rest of the country since the National Cancer Institute started tracking such statistics in the 1950s.
Silverman said the study is a controlled study involving 2,600 people; 1,200 were diagnosed with bladder cancer between 2001 and 2004, and another 1,400 did not have cancer. The people chosen represent a cross-section of the populations of the states in the study. She said researchers have finished collecting all pertinent data and are in the analysis process.
A report on their findings could come out as early as next year or as late as 2010, she said.
The top cause of bladder cancer is cigarette smoking, which in men is the reason for 50 to 65 percent of all bladder cancer, while in women, it is around 40 percent, Silverman said.
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