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According to a new report, Luzerne County children face cancer about as often as others statewide, but the rate is substantially higher in Wyoming County.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council released a policy brief on one of the most emotionally difficult medical issues many people never want to face, examining hospital admissions with a cancer diagnosis for children under age 18 for three years: 2016 through 2018.
There was a slim silver lining in the data. In 2016 3,035 children were admitted for cancer. That number dropped to 2,840 in 2017 before nudging back up last year to 2,952.
The brief doesn’t give numbers for all three years at the county level, but does give data for 2018. It also gives the number of cases per 10,000 county residents. Statewide the rate per 110,000 was 33.1. In Luzerne County, it was 33.4, representing 210 children
The rate varied substantially among neighboring counties, from a low of 12.3 in Carbon County (47 children) to a high of 49.7 in Wyoming (26 children). Other regional rates: 29.8 in Lackawanna County (130 children), 30.3 in Monroe County (103 children), 31.6 in Schuylkill County (87 children) and 26 in Columbia County (33 children).
The highest rate in the Commonwealth was 76 per 10,000 residents in Greene County, in the southwest corner of the state. That represents 55 children admitted with a cancer diagnosis in 2018.
Statewide, leukemia made up the largest chunk of cases, 2,794 cases. Secondary (metastatic) cancer was the second most common diagnosis with 1,409 cases
Most cancer diagnoses — nearly 61 percent — were in children under the age of 10. The brief breaks down the data further and shows the hardest hit are those under age 5, with 37% of all cancer admissions involving the youngest children.
The types of cancer change a bit with age. Along with leukemia and metastatic cancer, children under 10 suffered more often from cancers of the brain and nervous system, digestive system, and kidney and urinary tract. Those 10 to 17 most frequently were diagnosed with cancer of the bone, connective tissue and skin, or with lymphoma, both Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s.