Summit County health officials are getting a closer look at the cancer problem.

A new report - "Cancer in Summit County 2015" - looks at all diagnosed cancers and cancer deaths between 2007 and 2011.

Summit County health commissioner Donna Skoda says many of the county's cancers found can be screened early.

"It's the usual breast, cervical cancer, colorectal, esophageal, Hodgkin's lymphoma," Skoda tells WAKR.net, "and we really want people to understand that many of the cancers are amenable to screenings."

The report is meant to help provide the public and policy makers information to look at things that might need more attention.

The report says there are about 439 new cases of cancer per year for 100,000 residents in Summit County.

The average cancer rate was below the state and national average.

The average cancer mortality rate was below the state average, and above the national average.

(Summit County Public Health, news release) Summit County Public Health (SCPH) has recently released a report titled Cancer in Summit County 2015. This document provides information on all cancers diagnosed as well as all cancer deaths that occurred in Summit County residents between 2007 and 2011.

The report was compiled utilizing data from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS) and death records from the State of Ohio's Bureau of Vital Statistics.

These records were analyzed, compared, and standardized to data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

SEER contains the highest quality and most complete national data for the years included in the report.

The goal of this report is to explain the burden of cancer in residents of Summit County.

This report is meant to act as an informational tool so that community members and policy makers can be informed of and understand areas that may require special attention.

Below are some highlights for Summit County:

• For every 100,000 residents, there were approximately 439 new cases of cancer
(all types) each year
• The mortality rate for all types of cancer was 186 per 100,000 each year
• The average cancer incidence rate was below the state and national average rates
• The average cancer mortality rate was below the state average rate and above the national average rate

The report can be viewed in its entirety on the Summit County Public Health website at http://www.scph.org under the Agency Plans/ Reports tab.