Webinar: Cumulative Environmental Quality and Cancer Incidence featuring Jyotsna Jagai, PhD and Richard Clapp, DSc

According to the World Health Organization, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. The latest estimates of the cancer burden in the US in 2017, from the National Cancer Institute SEER program, are 1.7 million new cases, 600,000 deaths, and 14 million prevalent cases. Leading incidence types are breast (255,180), bronchus and lung (222,500), prostate (161,360), and colo-rectal (125,440).

A study published on May 8, 2017 in Cancer used a novel environmental quality index (EQI) representing five environmental domains—air, water, land, built environment, and sociodemographic environment—to assess the burden of cumulative environmental exposures on cancer incidence. The study, County-Level Cumulative Environmental Quality Associated with Cancer Incidence, found that county-level cancer incidence rates were positively associated with poor environmental quality overall. This is the first study investigating exposure burdens across multiple environmental domains, and demonstrates that research focusing on single environmental exposures in cancer development may not address the broader environmental context in which cancers develop.

Join us on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern to hear Dr. Jyotsna Jagai, lead author of the study, and Dr. Richard Clapp, epidemiologist and collaborator with the Cancer-Free Economy Network, discuss the study, its significance and implications, and steps to address the broader environmental context in which cancers develop and reduce disease incidence. Dr. Jagai will provide an overview of the study and the primary findings and Dr. Clapp will speak to the broader implications of the study for policy and further research.