Alcorn County Cancer Death Rate Below State Average

By Josh Mitchell

Corinth Today News Editor

The Alcorn County cancer death rate from 2011 to 2015 was lower than the state average, according to a report from the Mississippi State Department of Health.

The cancer death rate in Alcorn County was in the lowest category of 131 to 183 deaths per 100,000 people during that time period compared to the state rate of 195 per 100,000, the Regional Cancer Snapshot states.

Certain cancer death rates are higher in blacks while some are higher in whites. For instance, the prostate cancer death rate for black males in Northeast Mississippi is 52 deaths per 100,000 compared to 18 per 100,000 for whites.

Close to 20 counties in the state fell into the highest cancer death rate category of 217 to 258 deaths per 100,000. Nearby Benton and Lee counties fell into that category. Calhoun and Webster counties were the only other counties in the Northeast region to fall into the highest category.

Tishomingo, Marshall and Noxubee counties fell into the second highest cancer death rate category of 197 to 215 cancer deaths per 100,000 from 2011-2015.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women and all races in Mississippi.

The state’s cancer death rates for lung, prostate, breast, colon and rectum cancer are higher than the national average. For instance, the death rate in Mississippi for lung and bronchus cancer for males is 83 deaths per 100,000 people compared to 56 deaths per 100,000 people nationally from 2010-2014

There were 9,650 lung cancer deaths in the state from 2011-2015; 3,123, colon and rectum; 2,133, breast (females); 1,582, prostate (males); 381, melanoma; and 292, cervix uteri (females).

Black males had a higher incidence of cancers of the lung and bronchus, prostate, colon and rectum, and white men had a higher incidence of melanoma. For example, in Northeast Mississippi the prostate cancer incidence rate for black males in Mississippi was 213 cases per 100,000 compared to 108 per 100,000 for white males.

Black females in Mississippi have a higher incidence of breast, colon and rectum and cervix uteri cancers while white women have a higher incidence of lung and bronchus cancer and melanoma.

Likewise, the cancer mortality rates for black males is higher than whites for lung, prostate and colon cancer, and the death rate for melanoma is higher for whites in Mississippi.  And black females have a higher cancer death rate than white women for breast, colon and cervix cancer while white females have a higher death rate for melanoma and lung cancer in Mississippi.