More than 250 residents of three Long Island communities packed a hotel conference room to find out why a Health Department badysis targeted their region among four others in New York as having cancer rates higher than expected. We are at the beginning of a trip here, "said Brad Hutton, Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Public Health, on preliminary findings, which showed high rates of leukemia and lung cancer, bladder and thyroid. The statistics were presented Tuesday night at a standing crowd at the Hilton Garden Inn adjacent to the Stony Brook University campus.
Digitally, there were 311 cases of lung cancer in the hamlets of Centereach, Farmingville and Selden, a combined total that was 56 percent higher than the state rate for this disease.
The area of three communities also had 112 cases of bladder cancer, which was 50 percent higher than the state rate; 98 cases of thyroid cancer, 43% higher and 87 cases of leukemia, which occurred at a rate of 64% higher.
The data come from map and statistical studies from the New York State Cancer Registry, a database. 75-year-old demographic, diagnostic and cancer prevalence. The cancers were diagnosed between 2011 and 2015, said Hutton.
Some forms of leukemia that occur in adulthood as well as bladder and lung cancers all have strong badociations with smoking. High rates of thyroid cancer may be due to improved screening, which highlights smaller, inconsistent tumors that may have been missed in the past, Hutton added
. The cancer rate has increased in all three communities, he said Tuesday.
