Figure 2

Comparing geographic and statistical patterns. For Pennsylvania, the overall state incidence rate for late stage colon cancer (for genders, all races, and all ages aggregated for the period of 1994–2002) is substantially higher than early stage incidence rates but the frequency distribution across the range is similar. The geographic pattern is clearly different; there is a region with late stage diagnosis in the northeast and early stage diagnosis is primarily in central, western, and southern counties. Only Adams, Cameron, and Juniata counties are in the highest rate category for both late and early stage. When explored at more detail, for in-situ, localized, regional, and distant, all three counties are in the highest category for all diagnoses with the exception of Adams and Juniata for localized. For localized rates, Adams is in the second lowest category and Juniata in the middle. For Juniata, the anomaly may be due to the small numbers reported (which are reflected in a large confidence range). For Adams, however, the confidence range is much narrower, indicating that the disproportionately low incidence rate for localize diagnosis is due to something other than chance.