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Comment
. 2022 May 4;31(5):965-971.
doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-21-1230.

A National Map of NCI-Designated Cancer Center Catchment Areas on the 50th Anniversary of the Cancer Centers Program

Peter F DelNero #  1   2 , Ian D Buller #  1   3 , Rena R Jones  3 , Zaria Tatalovich  4 , Robin C Vanderpool  5 , Henry P Ciolino  6 , Robert T Croyle  7
Affiliations
Comment

A National Map of NCI-Designated Cancer Center Catchment Areas on the 50th Anniversary of the Cancer Centers Program

Peter F DelNero et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. .

Abstract

Background: In 1971, the National Cancer Act created a process to recognize the leadership, facilities, and research efforts at cancer centers throughout the United States. Toward this goal, each NCI-designated cancer center defines and describes a catchment area to which they tailor specific scientific and community engagement activities.

Methods: The geographically defined catchment areas of 63 NCI-designated comprehensive and clinical cancer centers are collated and presented visually. In addition, the NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are geographically linked with publicly available data sources to aggregate sociodemographic and epidemiologic characteristics across the NCI Cancer Centers Program.

Results: The national map portrays the size, shape, and locations for 63 catchment areas of the 71 NCI-designated cancer centers. The findings illustrate the geographic extent of the NCI Cancer Centers Program during the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act.

Conclusions: NCI-designated cancer centers occupy a prominent role in the cancer control ecosystem and continue to perform research to address the burden of cancer among their local communities. The strength of the NCI Cancer Centers Program is partly defined by the scope, quality, and impact of community outreach and engagement activities in the catchment areas.

Impact: The collation and geographic presentation of the distinct, but complementary, NCI-designated cancer center catchment areas are intended to support future research and community outreach activities among NCI-designated cancer centers. See related commentary by Vadaparampil and Tiro, p. 952.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Visualization of the catchment areas for clinical (orange) and comprehensive (blue) NCI-designated Cancer Centers. Points represent NCI-designated Cancer Center locations. NCI-designated Basic and Pediatric Cancer Centers are not shown. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are not to scale.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Visualization of the number of NCI-designated Cancer Center catchment areas ascribed to each U.S. county. Darker shades of color signify a higher count of NCI-designated Cancer Centers that consider a county within their catchment area. NCI-designated Basic and Pediatric Cancer Centers are excluded. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are not to scale.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Visualization of the combined NCI-designated Cancer Center catchment areas relative to the U.S. population by county. Underlying data are from the American Community Survey (2015–2019). Green colors signify a county is considered in one or more NCI-designated Cancer Center catchment area definition. Purple colors signify a county that is not considered in at least one NCI-designated Cancer Center catchment area definition. Darker shades of color signify larger populations within a county. NCI-designated Basic and Pediatric Cancer Centers are excluded. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are not to scale.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Scatterplot of U.S. population and land area within each NCI-designated Cancer Center catchment area. Underlying data are from the American Community Survey (2015–2019). UCSF Diller: UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; City of Hope: City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center; MD Anderson: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; MSKCC: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Huntsman: Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Demographic (A) and epidemiologic (B) characteristics by catchment area (grey circles), compared to the total U.S. estimate (black bar). Underlying data are from the American Community Survey and National Vital Statistics System (2015–2019). AI/AN: American Indian or Alaskan Native; API: Asian or Pacific Islander.
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References

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    1. Paskett ED, Hiatt RA. Catchment Areas and Community Outreach and Engagement: The New Mandate for NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 2018;27(5):517–9. - PubMed
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