PCIST is the People’s Cancer Incidence Screening Tool. The tool calculates the average annual crude cancer incidence rates for Pennsylvania’s cities, towns and boroughs over a twenty-year period of time, from 2002-2021.

The PCIST tool covers twenty-three types of primary invasive cancer in various parts of the body: Bladder and urinary tract; Blood (leukemia, myeloma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma); Brain and nervous system; Breast; Cervix; Colon and rectum; Esophagus; Kidneys and renal tract; Larynx; Liver and bile duct system; Lung and bronchus; Mouth and pharynx; Ovaries; Pancreas; Prostate; Skin (melanoma); Stomach; Testes; Thyroid; and Uterus.

For the above-named cancers, PCIST provides crude average annual cancer incidence rates for All Ages-Total; All Ages-Females; All Age-Males; Children aged 0-19; Youth aged 0-29; and adults aged 20+.

The results of PCIST analyses are communicated in Community Cancer Signals Reports (CCSR). These free, public educational resources provide communities with information about elevations in their average annual crude cancer incidence rates as compared with the national, state, and county figures over the same period of time.

Cancer is a mandated, reportable disease in the United States. To run our calculations, PCIST uses data obtained from the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s SEER and WONDER databases; the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, via the Pennsylvania’s Department of Health; and the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey population data.

None of these source institutions is responsible for the cancer incidence data generated via the PCIST tool, or for any analyses and interpretations based upon the PCIST cancer incidence numbers that are communicated in the CCSR reports.

The PCIST project and its CCSR reports are intended as a free public informational resource.  We are not responsible for others’ interpretations of, responses to, and uses of our data and reports.  

Questions or suggestions?  We welcome discussion, feedback and collaboration!  Please email PCIST@pm.me