Cancer in the USA: Facts & Figures Webquest In this unit, we learned that uncontrolled cell division may lead to cancer. In this webquest, we are going to look at incidence of cancer in the USA and some of the things you can do to reduce your risk of developing cancer. Go to https://www.cancer.org/healthy.html, What are six lifestyle choices/activities you can do to reduce your risk of developing cancer. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Check out this cancer data at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) https://gis.cdc.gov/Cancer/USCS/DataViz.html Make sure you are on the OVERVIEW TAB, you should see a color-coded map of the United States. The latest data reported is from 2017. Click on MA. What is the rate of new cancer cases per 100,000 people? On the bottom of the US map, there is a legend that gives the ranges for each color on the map. For example, the gray-blue states have the lowest rates of new cancer cases and the dark blue states have the highest rates of new cancer cases. Take a look at Massachusetts and compare it to the rest of the states in New England. In the box below write a sentence or two summarizing how Massachusetts' number of new cancer cases compares to other states in New England. Scroll down to the bottom half of the page and look at the graph on the left. List the top 4 cancers by rates of new cancer cases? 1. 2. 3. 4. Go to the right side of this page, you can see that lung and bronchus cancer have the highest rate of cancer death. In the box below using one or two sentences and round numbers tell me how the death rate from lung cancers compares to that of either prostate or breast cancer. Which one of the healthy habits you identified in question 1 do you think would be most important to follow to reduce your risk of dying from lung/bronchus cancer? Go back to the top of the page and click on the Demographics Tab. This page shows while cancer impacts people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and sexes, it does not always affect them equally. Differences in genetics, hormones, environmental exposures, and other factors can lead to differences in risk among different groups of people. In the upper left hand corner, the graph compares the rate of new cancers by sex. Which sex has a higher rate of new cancer cases? Do you feel this is a significant difference in rates between the two sexes? In the upper right hand corner, the graph compares the rate of new cancers by ethnicity/race. Which ethnicity/race have the lowest rates of new cancer cases? Can you think of any questions that may arise when using ethnicity/race as part of a dataset? In the lower left hand corner, the graph compares the rate of new cancers by age. Please summarize the trend you see in this graph. You examined data looking at the rates of new cancer cases by sex, age, and ethnicity/race. Of these 3 things, sex, age, ethnicity/race, which is a greater predictor of your risk of cancer? Support your answer with the data.
