Concerned about the amount of cancer where you live?
Transparency and Dignity
We use publicly available data from state cancer registries and health departments to calculate which local communities experience an elevated rate of any of the 23 leading types of cancer in the United States. We put this history of elevated cancer incidence — plus information about known sources and types of local air, water and soil pollution — directly into your hands in the form of detailed maps.
Our Mission
We study cancer in context. PCIST calculates the local incidence rate of the 23 most commonly diagnosed cancers over a twenty year period of time. We map any elevations in local cancer rates, as compared with the state and US numbers, for the total population, adults, youth, children, men and women. Because the substances that residents breathe, ingest, and absorb from their local environment shapes their lifetime cancer risk, PCIST maps also identify major pollution sources and types.
Data with Dignity
We prioritize human significance over statistical significance. PCIST is the recognized leader of a movement to challenge the arbitrary mathematical thresholds that a priori suppress local cancer rates as statistically insignificant. We believe that every case of cancer counts and that local community concerns about the prevalence of cancer and pollutant exposures should be taken seriously. We can best — and often only — see connections between pollution and cancer incidence at the local level.
Cancer Prevention
We approach cancer as an anthropogenic disease — an environmental metabolic disorder that is triggered by exposures to pollution generated by our agricultural and industrial production and our patterns of consumption. Cancer prevention, in turn, ought to address not only our “bad genes” and “lifestyle choices,” but minimizing our environmental exposures. PCIST maps point the way for identifying which communities suffer from the most cancer, and what policy changes can best reduce their collective cancer burden.
PCIST Partnership
PCIST is a validated tool that was created by Dr. Lauren Minsky. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has spent twenty years as a full-time faculty member teaching environmental health at NC State, NYU and Haverford, as well as four years working in a pediatric cancer biology lab. Dr. Minsky is the author of multiple peer-reviewed publications, and has held fellowships from Fulbright, the Social Science Research Council, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, among others. She currently dedicates her full-time efforts to leading PCIST and to applying insights from her interdisciplinary background to supporting communities’ health needs.
PCIST is also comprised of a Cancer Signal Review Board. Our board consists of community members, public health practitioners, physicians, non-profit environmental health leaders and epidemiologists. PCIST board members meet regularly to analyze new cancer signal data, synthesize data and identify patterns, and set priorities for future work.
PCIST Talks
October 29, 2026
“Preventing Cancer at its Source,” presenter and session leader for Health EducatED Health Care Solutions Symposium: Root Causes, Real Solutions: Environmental Drivers of Health Equity, Villanova University
October 9, 2026
“Mapping Cancer: The story of data on the community level, and what it says about exposures”, P-SNAP (Physician and Scientist Network Addressing Plastics and Health)
October 7, 2026
“Shale Gas Devours: Cumulative Exposures & Cancerous Consequences”, CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) Seminar
August 5, 2026
“Fracking 101 and Cancer in Washington County, PA”, Center for Coalfield Justice, MAD-FACTS Summer Series, Washington, PA (with Sarah Sweeney)
June 12, 2026
“Talking about Health Impacts of Fracking and Petrochemical Production”, P-SNAP (Physican and Scientist Network Addressing Plastics and Health) Roundtable (with Amy Kostant and Ned Ketyer)
February 19, 2026
“Research on Childhood Cancer and Health Studies”, Shale Gas and Public Health 2026, organized by PSRPA (Physicians for Social Responsibility-PA), PA League of Women Voters and Duquesne University (with Kathy Nolan and Dani Wilson)
February 10, 2026
“No More Sacrifice Zones, Part 2”, Halt the Harm Network (with Tonyehn Verkitus, Tracy Carluccio, Sean O’Leary and Emily Copeland)
November 5, 2025
Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources & Natural Protection Committee Public Hearing Agenda on “LNG Export Terminal Proposed for SE PA” (expert testifier with Robert Howarth, Tracy Carluccio, Liz Marx, James Hiatt and Zulene Mayfield)
August 30, 2025
CRCQL+ Delaware RiverKeeper Network, talk for community education event on proposed LNG facility in Chester/Eddystone at Providence Friends Meeting House in Media, PA (with Zulene Mayfield and Tracy Carluccio)
PCIST operates for the public benefit and receives foundational support from Physicians for Social Responsibility-PA. We collaborate closely with our community partners in designing PCIST cancer maps and providing community education. We also make our maps freely available on this website.
If you have concerns about the prevalence of cancer in your community, we welcome you to contact us.
