We measured urban/rural disparities in cancer incidence in New York State using a data set with more than 500,000 tumors diagnosed among New York State residents between 2008-2012 geocoded to the census tract level. Using poisson regression, we computed the site and stage-specific relative risks of cancer by level of urbanicity after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. 18 of the 23 cancer sites analyzed showed some form of significant association between cancer incidence and urbanicity, although the risk differences were generally small. Differences in risk of 50% or more were seen for stomach, liver, distant-stage uterine, and thyroid cancers (each higher in New York City than in rural areas); esophagus, distant-stage kidney, and distant-stage lung (each lower in New York City than in rural areas); and distant-stage prostate cancer (higher in rural areas).
Rising Thyroid Cancer Incidence Proximate to a New York City-Area Nuclear Power Plant