Geospatial approaches to cancer control and population sciences

Cancer incidence and mortality display strong geographic patterns worldwide and in the United States (1, 2). The environment where individuals live, work, and play is increasingly being recognized as important across the cancer control continuum, including the risk of cancer development, detection, diagnosis, treatment, mortality, and survivorship (3-5). At the same time, emergent technological capacity in geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping, along with increasing sophistication in applied spatial methods, has resulted in a growing research community developing and applying geospatial approaches in health research (5). Through collaborative, transdisciplinary efforts, and continued data collection efforts, there is great potential to apply these emerging geospatial approaches to various aspects of cancer prevention and control to inform etiology and target interventions and implementation of efficacious risk-reducing strategies.