Cancer effects us all in one way or another, but for Clinton County residents, it seems that the rate of cancer patients is unusually higher than other nearby communities.

Concerns about this apparent high cancer rates here was one of the in-depth subjects addressed last Thursday during a meeting of the Clinton County Fiscal Court in which local and area health figures addressed the governing body with their concerns.

Amanda England, with the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, was on hand to give the council members information on recent statistics provided by the LCDHD.

The numbers were very surprising to the magistrates as well as those who attended the meeting Thursday.

Local physician Dr. Calvin Powell was also on hand to provide the magistrates with information and concern for what he deals with in his office. Powell said he has six patients, all women, ages 50 and below, who have been diagnosed with cancer.

“It just seemed to me that this was an unusual occurance. I asked the judge (Lyle Huff) and the health department if they would be so kind as to look into our cancer rates in this county. It may just be where we are just a small county and where everybody knows everybody and we know about it, but it’s such an unusual occurrence,” Powell said.

The cause of high cancer rates in Clinton County has not been determined. People in the county are being diagnosed not with the same type of cancer, but with several different types, making it harder to pin down a cause.

“I have my thoughts about what causes this and again it may just be a statistical anomaly,” Powell said. “If we can study the cancer rates in this county and maybe the specific types of cancer … anything that we could perhaps do to help the citizens of this county. We want to give citizens the best care that we can.”

According to Judge/Executive Lyle Huff, there are not any funds available that would help this type of situation.

“Stranger things have happened, but to my knowledge there is not a state grant out there for this,” Huff said.

England spoke briefly on the different types of cancer listed in the LCDHD’s recently published report card.

“A couple of months ago I asked the judge to provide us with some numbers and Ms. England sent us some numbers that were staggering. We all are affected some way with cancer. There are two of us (magistrates) out of six who have had cancer in the past and the rest of us it has effected our family. I want to develop a resolution asking the Center of Disease Control and maybe the American Cancer Society and hear their thoughts. I think that’s a good start.” Magistrate Willard Johnson said. “I think those numbers are too high for our county.”

Johnson continued with a question about the surrounding counties and if their cancer rate was higher, lower or close to the same as Clinton County.

“Some of them are the same and some of them are above,” England said.

The LCDHD recently published a list of 10 counties surrounding Clinton County that has the figures of cancer rates in those counties.

“It compares the most common types of cancer and it shows each county, so you can compare your county to the others,” England said. “It also compares cancer rates to the district, to the state level and nationwide.”

The LCDHD puts out report cards every two years. The most recently published report card is for cancer statistics for 2008-2009.

By comparing cancer rates at one in every 100,000 residents, across the 10 county district, Clinton County ranks the highest in cancer incidences with a rating of 622.2. The rating for the state level is 523.4 and 538.8 for the nation.

The 10-county district includes Adair, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Green, McCreary, Pulaski, Russell, Taylor, and Wayne Counties.

For cancer death rates Clinton County’s rating was 255.8 whereas the rating for the state level was 217.1 and the national rating was substantially lower at 184. Green County ranks the lowest with a 151.5 rating.

Breaking down into smaller, more individualized groups of cancer, Clinton County has a rating of 117.7 for lung cancer with a 136.2 for lung cancer deaths. Statewide the rating for lung cancer incidences is 100.9 with a death rate of 76.1. Nationwide, lung cancer is 82.7 with a 60.6 rating for lung cancer deaths.

For female breast cancer incidences, Clinton County is at a 207.3 rating, where the state level rating is at 147.9 and the national rate is 119.3.

The female breast cancer death rate in Clinton County is 40.4, with a state level rate of 25 and a national rate of 26.9.

For colorectal cancer, Clinton County has a 42.8 rating which falls under the state and national levels of 58.6 and 54.1 respectively. The colorectal cancer death rate for Clinton County is slightly above the state and national average at 23.5. State and national levels are 18.9 and 20.1 respectively.

For cervix/uteri cancer Clinton County has a rate of 16.30 compared to a state level of 9.48. The death rate for this type of cancer is 8.15 compared to a state death rate of 2.83.

Again, all of those comparisons are at a ratio of one in every 100,000.

“Giving the number of Clinton County citizens who have asked me to look into this, I have concerns that there is underlying issues for the high cancer rates in Clinton County,” Judge Huff said.

Judge Huff, along with Albany Mayor Nicky Smith, isworking to produce a resolution that will have the full support of the Clinton County Fiscal Court as well as the Albany City Council.

Amanda England, with the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, spoke last week during the fiscal court meeting held at the courthouse. The purpose of her visit was to inform the court about the recent cancer statistics released from their annual report card.