(Red Oak) -- Montgomery County was the latest to hear about trends and treatment options related to cancer cases in Iowa.
The Iowa Cancer Registry held its latest virtual 99 Counties Project presentation Wednesday evening. Comprised of a partnership between several state agencies and groups, the 99 Counties Project was created to explore why Iowa's cancer rates are second in the nation and where each of the state's counties stands in terms of the various forms of cancer. Andrey Gronemeyer is a research specialist with the Iowa Cancer Registry and coordinator for the 99 Counties Project. Like many counties in Iowa, Gronemeyer says prostate cancer and breast cancer are the most prevalent forms in Montgomery County. But, where the county stands out, she says, is lung cancer, ranked 8th in the state in lung cancer rates, with 13 new cases diagnosed each year. In addition to smoking being the number one cause, Gronemeyer says the number two cause of lung cancer is radon.
"The way that they work together, it's much stronger than each of them are on their own because sometimes risk factors can really work together," said Gronemeyer. "People who smoke that are exposed to radon are at 10 to 20 times higher risk of developing lung cancer than non-smokers. So removing at least one of these risk factors greatly reduce your risk for lung cancer."
Fortunately, Gronemeyer says Montgomery County is below both the state and national average in lung cancer mortality rate, with less than six deaths reported per year. But, Gronemeyer emphasized the importance of high-risk persons getting the necessary screening for lung cancer, including a low-dose CT scan, to hopefully detect more cases in the early stage.
"If you smoked in the last 15 years and are between ages 50 and 80, you should talk to your doctor about being screened for lung cancer," said Gronemeyer. "We can see the proportion of those who are eligible who have received their lung cancer screening is only 18.4% for the state of Iowa. That is very low compared to some of the other screenings we've already talked about and it is a relatively new screening, so there's definitely an opportunity here to raise some awareness and education around this screening."
Gronemeyer says individuals can take several steps to reduce their risks of any form of cancer, including cutting out smoking or other forms of tobacco use, being active, eating healthy, reducing indoor and outdoor pollution, and getting vaccinated against Hepatitis B and HPV. While roughly 40% of cancers in the U.S. are attributed to modifiable risk factors, Gronemeyer says there are still unknowns about what can lead to each person's cancer diagnosis.
"What we don't really know is what causes cancer for a particular individual," said Gronemeyer. "There are very healthy people who have done everything right and are still diagnosed with cancer and there are other people who arguably have not lived very healthy lifestyles and are not diagnosed with cancer. So while we can't totally eliminate our risk, there are things that we can do to reduce our risk of cancer."
Gronemeyer says one recommendation the Iowa Cancer Registry has already made to help address growing cancer rates is increasing the tobacco tax. While the state's smoking rate decreased after the tobacco tax passed in 2007, Gronemeyer says it has since increased in Montgomery County and other parts of the state to nearly pre-2007 levels.
"There has been a recent study published that predicts Iowa to have the highest smoking rate in the nation by 2035 if we keep going along the same path and we don't do anything," said Gronemeyer. "We want to point out the tobacco tax increase because it's been shown that raising the tobacco tax by at least a dollar is the most effective way to reduce the burden of cancer. For it to continue being effective, it really needs to be implemented at regular increments and Iowa hasn't done that in quite some time."
At the state level, University of Iowa College of Public Health Assistant Professor Whitney Zahnd says they have also proposed raising taxes on alcohol, setting minimum unit prices, and prohibiting minors from using tanning beds. You can find more information about the 99 Counties Project and the presentation given Wednesday on the Iowa Cancer Registry's website.
This story comes from our partners at KMA Radio.