Title: The 20 States with the Highest Cancer Rates | The Healthy
Headings: The 20 States with the Highest Cancer Rates
The 20 States with the Highest Cancer Rates
The U.S. cancer risk isn't spread evenly across the states: Here are the 20 states with the highest cancer rates.
The cancer report
Kentucky
Delaware
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Louisiana
Rhode Island
West Virginia
Maine
Iowa
Connecticut
Mississippi
Arkansas
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Lauren Cahn

Content: in other words, don’t despair if your state happens to be in the top 20 list. Take a close look at your state’s death rate from cancer (the average in the U.S. is 161 per 100,000): Your state could have a great track record of treating cancer and helping people survive. Here’s some more good news about the fight against cancer. Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Kentucky
With slightly more than 521 new cases per 100,000 people, Kentucky has the highest cancer rate in the country. It also has the highest cancer death rate in the country —198 per 100,000 people. The three types of cancer with the highest prevalence (meaning the most people living with a cancer diagnosed either recently or in the past) were breast, prostate, and lung—as is true for most of the states on this list. However, the death rate due to lung cancer was a striking rate of 66 per 100,000, which is higher than the average death rate from lung cancer in the US which is 42 per 100,000. Here’s the lifestyle changes cancer doctors make to avoid cancer. Jon Bilous/Shutterstock
Delaware
Although Delaware’s cancer rate—498.4 per 100,000—is second in the country and well above the national average, the state’s cancer death rate is 169.6 per 100,000.