Hunter
02/08/26
New research from the University of Iowa College of Public Health shows Linn County is among roughly a dozen Iowa counties with significantly higher overall cancer rates, and advanced stage lung cancer is particularly problematic statewide.
The Gazette reports UI researchers published their preliminary findings in a report presented Thursday. It says Iowa’s high rates of prostate cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and melanoma are largely driven by higher rates of early stage (localized cancers), which helps explain why Iowa’s mortality rate for these cancers is similar to the overall US mortality rate despite Iowa’s higher incidence rates. Conversely, Iowa’s high rate of lung cancer is largely driven by a higher rate of distant (metastatic cancer), which contributes to Iowa having a higher lung cancer mortality rate than the rest of the US.
Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country and is the only state with a rising cancer rate.
Edith Parker, dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, said at the presentation that to fully answer the question of why Iowa has a higher rate of new cancers compared to the national average would require individualized data that is not collected nationally or in Iowa. They must rely on the data they do have to advance their research.
Governor Kim Reynolds, whose husband Kevin was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023, is proposing sweeping health care legislation that would, among other things, increase taxes on cigarettes, tobacco, vape products and consumable hemp products, eliminate certain dyes and additives from school foods, and require nutrition as part of physicians’ continuing medical education.
A link to the UI’s report is available below.