If you get all the recommended cancer screenings, how safe are you? Dr. Billy U. Philips Jr. and colleagues at Texas Tech University performed a unique study to find out. The purpose of cancer screening tests is to find the malignancy early, while it can be treated successfully. A major distinction between early and late stage cancer is the presence of metastases. Philips used data from the Texas Cancer Registry to check the ratio of metastatic to non-metastatic cancer diagnoses in Texas on a county by county basis. His team of researchers also analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to quantify the degree of socioeconomic wealth or deprivation for each county. Statistical correlation then provided a measure of the success of improved health care for cancer.

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