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Guidelines

Guidelines for Examining Unusual Patterns of Cancer and Environmental Concerns

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø/ATSDR guidelines to help health departments as they investigate unusual patterns of cancer in their communities.

Fact sheets

Investigating Cancer Clusters and Unusual Patterns of Cancer: Challenges and Limitations

This document contains answers to frequently asked questions about community-level investigations of unusual patterns of cancer.

Standardized Incidence Ratio (SIR)

This document contains answers to frequently asked questions about the standardized incidence ratio, which is one of the methods used to evaluate unusual patterns of cancer.

Forms

Cancer Inquiry Intake Form

This form is designed to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments collect standardized information on inquiries about unusual patterns of cancer and environmental concerns, as described in the ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø/ATSDR’s Guidelines for Examining Unusual Patterns of Cancer and Environmental Concerns.

If you would like to access the form, database templates, and instructions, please email [email protected].

Decision Making Form

This form can be used as a decision-making tool to determine whether to continue assessing a report of an unusual pattern of cancer and/or environmental concerns.

Tools

Communication resources

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General cancer resources

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø's National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) funds state and territorial cancer registries to collect cancer data to measure progress, drive action, prevent cancers, and improve treatment for all people.

NCI conducts extensive cancer research activities and provides educational materials for the public.

Provides information on cancer (including cancer clusters), research, and services.

The American Cancer Society's is a webpage devoted to human carcinogens identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs. This provides an alternative, user-friendly viewing of data published by IARC Monographs (see below for more information about IARC Monographs and links to their webpage).

Information on cancer and environmental risk factors or exposures

Provides information about toxic chemicals and health risks, including cancer.

Provides general background information on cancer clusters and the available resources related to investigating or researching incidence of cancer. NCI provides specific information on their role in conducting routine surveillance studies of cancer incidence. NCI analyzes variations in cancer trends, including the frequency, distribution, and patterns of cancer in groups of people. These analyses may reveal patterns of cancer in specific populations and identify changes that may warrant investigation. In addition, NCI provides resources that allow users to visualize cancer trends by geographic location.

• NCI allows users to create maps of cancer statistics, demographics, and .
• The joint NCI-ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø State Cancer Profiles provides interactive maps to visualize cancer statistics by states and counties.

Provides information about environment-related diseases and health risks, such as electromagnetic fields and cancer.

• The is produced by NIEHS every other year, this report contains an extensive list of chemicals that cause cancer, as well as many other toxicology reports.
• The provides a Tableau dashboard for exploring the NIEHS 15^th Report on Carcinogens by substance or cancer type. Contains 256 substances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans.

Identifies and evaluates environmental and occupational causes of human cancer. Since 1971, more than 1000 agents have been evaluated.

• The includes a table summarizing carcinogenic agents with sufficient or limited evidence in humans by cancer site.

Supports EPA's mission of protecting human health and the environment by identifying and characterizing the health hazards of chemicals found in the environment. Provides cancer descriptors for each chemical and identifies as one of five designations: carcinogenic to humans, likely to be carcinogenic to humans, suggestive evidence carcinogenic potential, inadequate information to assess carcinogenic potential, or not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.

• The enables users to search by organ/system and yield associated chemical, exposure route, and cancer assessment.

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Provides information about exposures in the workplace known or suspected to cause cancer. NIOSH also responds to requests from employers, union representatives, or employees to evaluate potentially hazardous working conditions, including concerns about cancer.

Provides scientific evidence, information resources and risk reduction strategies to support state chronic disease programs and state cancer coalitions in addressing cancer risks associated with environmental and occupational agents.

Technical assistance

ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø/ATSDR provides technical assistance to state health departments regarding unusual patterns of cancer by request.

If you work for a state health department and have questions about the guidelines or need assistance, please contact [email protected].