Only 32 Like Me

Poking around the National Cancer Institute site today, I found a clever searchable chart. The one I am presently looking at breaks down by county, how many people have cancer. For example: My county has 1,119 average annual count (between 2004 and 2008) of cancer patients. The population of Santa Cruz county in July of 2008 was 253,137.

You can also tweek the chart to give a break down of the types of cancer. There are 162 annual count for breast cancer in females in my county, 199 for prostate cancer.

Here I am with a diagnosis of Leukemia. When I look at the chart for my county the average annual count for people with Leukemia is 32.

picture is symbolic

I can break the chart down further by chosing sex or race. I chose Asian and came up with "less than 3" for Leukemia. Over in  Santa Clara county the number is 34. Santa Clara county has a high Asian population so that is understandable.

I then chose males with Leukemia in Santa Cruz county. The number is 18. I know one of them. He was in my writing class last fall. He has been dealing with his Leukemia for the last seven years, so, he is definitely one of those 18.

The average annual count of Leukemia patients for the whole state is 3,998. When the count is for all types of cancers in the state, the number is 147,153.

The death rate for Leukemia in Santa Cruz county is falling. The average deaths per year from Leukemia is 14. That's a little less than fifty percent.

This is the link to this handy dandy chart system