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: The top three causes of cancer death in Delaware are female breast, prostate, and lung. The best way to lower risk of lung cancer is to stop smoking. Here are 23 ways to quit smoking for good. Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock
Pennsylvania
With a rate of 487 per 100,000, Pennsylvania comes in at the third highest. While breast, prostate, and lung cancers are the most prevalent, thyroid cancer is more common in Pennsylvania than in other states. Penn State researchers report that the state’s incidence of thyroid cancer may be higher than it is in the rest of the United States, possibly due to the Three Mile Island incident back in 1979. The cause of thyroid cancer is often unknown, but exposure to low-dose radiation in childhood, as well as obesity, are known risk factors. The thyroid cancer rates did not go up right after the nuclear plant accident in the late 1970s, so other risk factors like obesity or better detection in recent years could be to blame for the higher rates. And the good news is that thyroid cancer is highly curable. Pennsylvania’s cancer death rate is 169 per 100,000.