BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Greater Cincinnati is riddled with high cancer rates, especially for lung, breast and colorectal cancer, according to a study released Monday.
The study, compiled by the health planning agency CORVA, offers the most detailed picture ever of local cancer rates.
It uses 1992 data from two state cancer surveillance projects to analyze eight southwest Ohio counties and 12 Northern Kentucky counties by overall cancer rates and for five specific types of cancer.
The results are ''scary,'' said CORVA president Jim Sandmann.
Overall, Hamilton County had the fourth highest cancer rate in Ohio. Clinton County ranked third of the state's 88 counties.
Five southwest Ohio counties - Adams, Hamilton, Brown, Butler and Warren - ranked among the top 11 counties statewide in lung cancer rates. In Adams County, lung cancer rates were 91 percent higher than the state average. In Hamilton County, lung cancer rates were 73 percent higher than state averages.
Clinton County had the highest colorectal cancer rate in Ohio with 93.3 cases per 100,000 people - nearly twice as high as the state average of 47.3 per 100,000 people.
Clinton County ranked fourth in breast cancer. Brown County and Warren County ranked among the 10 top counties for ovarian cancer.
Cancer experts have known for years that cancer is common in the Tristate. But the extent of the problem has never been made clear. Nor have the possible causes for the high cancer rates.
''Maybe this report will mobilize something more than talking about it,'' Mr. Sandmann said.
CORVA is the Health Planning and Resource Development Association of the Central Ohio River Valley. It is one of eight regional agencies in Ohio formed in the late 1960s to track community health needs. The agency plans to hold a community health status forum later this year for concerned groups. It now will track cancer statistics from year to year to look for trends.
The American Cancer Society of Southwest Ohio plans to use the cancer data to focus its prevention and education programs.
''This kind of data will make cancer a priority in Ohio. Now we finally have hard data county-by-county,'' said Dan Burleigh, the cancer society's interim regional vice president. ''Our new mission 2000 program will focus on these major causes of cancer.''
CORVA's study was based primarily on data from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System, which completed its first cancer rate report last summer. But CORVA's work also looks at Northern Kentucky.
Overall, Kentucky's cancer rates are higher than Ohio's. But the statistics show Northern Kentucky residents experience many of the same cancer problems as their Ohio neighbors.
Lung cancer rates were highest in Gallatin, Bracken and Kenton counties.
Pendleton County had Kentucky's highest colorectal cancer rate, with especially high rates for women.
Prostate cancer in Bracken County was nearly twice as high as state averages.
Why Greater Cincinnati has high cancer rates remains a mystery, Mr. Sandmann said.
Some speculate that high cancer rates may reflect regional lifestyle trends in smoking and diet. Others wonder whether current cancer rates reflect old environmental problems, such as Ohio River pollution or air emissions from industry and cars, Mr. Sandmann said.
The causes may be complex, but some say the local cancer incidence rates are high enough to justify seeking answers.
''This study definitely shows high rates of cancer that somebody has to take a look at,'' said Randall Garland, president of the Cincinnati Health Network. ''This should provide a lot of areas for concentration and further study.''
