GIScience and cancer: State of the art and trends for cancer surveillance and epidemiology

Abstract

Maps are well recognized as an effective means of presenting and communicating health data, such as cancer incidence and mortality rates. These data can be linked to geographic features like counties or census tracts and their associated attributes for mapping and analysis. Such visualization and analysis provide insights regarding the geographic distribution of cancer and can be important for advancing effective cancer prevention and control programs. Applying a spatial approach allows users to identify location-based patterns and trends related to risk factors, health outcomes, and population health. Geographic information science (GIScience) is the discipline that applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other spatial concepts and methods in research. This review explores the current state and evolution of GIScience in cancer research by addressing fundamental topics and issues regarding spatial data and analysis that need to be considered. GIScience, along with its health-specific application in the spatial epidemiology of cancer, incorporates multiple geographic perspectives pertaining to the individual, the health care infrastructure, and the environment. Challenges addressing these perspectives and the synergies among them can be explored through GIScience methods and associated technologies as integral parts of epidemiologic research, analysis efforts, and solutions. The authors suggest GIScience is a powerful tool for cancer research, bringing additional context to cancer data analysis and potentially informing decision-making and policy, ultimately aimed at reducing the burden of cancer.

A Bivariate Mapping Tutorial for Cancer Control Resource Allocation Decisions and Interventions

“…Bivariate mapping has been proposed as an effective GIS-based approach for disease surveillance and state-level public health programming broadly and cancer control planning specifically (6)(7)(8)(9). This approach uses choropleth mapping (ie, a thematic map where areas are colored to represent data values) to display 2 variables simultaneously among geographic units such as states or counties by creating "n × n" groupings where values of both variables intersect.…”

“…This approach uses choropleth mapping (ie, a thematic map where areas are colored to represent data values) to display 2 variables simultaneously among geographic units such as states or counties by creating "n × n" groupings where values of both variables intersect. State-level studies have used bivariate mapping to examine lung cancer mortality relative to access to lung cancer screening, racial disparities in 2 types of cancer screening, late-stage rates of 2 cancers, and other cancer-related data (6,(10)(11)(12)(13). Overall, bivariate mapping is underused in cancer control, especially at the sub-state level (eg, counties).…”

Using GIS to Explore the Potential of Business Rating Data to Analyse Stock and Value Change for Land Administration: A Case Study of York

“…The ability to analyse metadata pertaining to geolocated points within a GIS provides researchers and policy makers with the ability to investigate spatial and temporal patterns in data and is a fundamental methodological approach in a diverse range of disciplines including epidemiology [6,7], criminology [8] and political science [9]. In the discipline of real estate economics, the distribution of the quantity and price of both commercial and residential property can be evaluated.…”

Spatio-temporal mapping of breast and prostate cancers in South Iran from 2014-2017

“…Taken together, geographical information systems (GIS) constitute a useful tool for the identi cation of high-risk areas of cancer occurrence as well as investigation of the environmental effects on cancer incidence (19)(20)(21). GIS compounds spatial and non-spatial data together producing a geodatabase, making it possible to perform spatial analyses using this data structure.…”