New cancer data guiding research, care in Harris County

New countywide data that breaks down cancer cases at the census tract level is helping to inform the way providers care for patients in the Spring area, local health care officials said.

How it works

In March, Harris County Public Health released the East Harris County Cancer Assessment Report, which focused on 66 census tracts in East Harris County. Along with the report, HCPH launched an interactive dashboard where residents can see where higher-than-expected rates exist for 17 types of cancer countywide.

“Higher-than-expected cancer rates exist across all of Harris County compared to the state of Texas,” said Dr. Jo Ann Monroy, senior manager of Data Analytics and Reporting for the Office of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Emerging Diseases, or OESED. “By identifying where certain cancer types occur at higher-than-expected rates, clinicians can better understand the communities they serve, tailor prevention and screening efforts, and consider environmental or demographic factors that may influence patient risk.”

In the Spring and Klein areas, data shows several census tracts exhibited higher-than-expected cancer rates for:

• Bladder
• Brain
• Lymphoma
• Prostate
• Skin
• Thyroid

While the report acknowledges environmental concerns, Monroy noted it does not determine causation, and more work is needed to explore possible correlations.

“Continued air and water-quality monitoring, enforcement of existing environmental regulations and ongoing remediation of contaminated sites all play a significant role in lowering risk over time,” Monroy said.

Moving forward, Monroy said HCPH and the OESED plan to obtain additional data from the Texas Cancer Registry as new data is released to further enhance their analysis.

“Additionally, we plan to do further analysis by leveraging available environmental exposure data to explore possible correlations,” Monroy said. “We are continuing to identify other possible partnerships for longer term studies/analyses in the future.”