Industrial Engineering & Operations Research

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

IEOR in Health Care Course Project
on

Correlation of Cancer Cases with

Geographical Factors Using GIS
Aman (163190018)
Aayush Aggarwal (163190028)
Vinay Rai (153190012

Contents
Introduction
Background
Epidemiology
GIS
Incidence Rate
National Air Quality Index

Problem Description
Analysis & Results
Data Collection
Analysis

Conclusion
References

Introduction
Cancer is one of the major causes of death in the country.
Mortality rate due to cancer has increased by six percent
approximately from 2012 to 2014.
Cancer cases in India are rising due to various reason such as
change in lifestyle of general population, rise in pollution, and
worsening food habits etc.
We are looking at factors which vary geographically and this
variation can be measured.
Objective is to correlate such factors with number of cancer
cases at different locations.

Background
Epidemiology:
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the patterns, causes, and
effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations.

GIS:
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for
capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions
on Earths surface. GIS can show many different kinds of data on one
map which help to analyze and understand patterns and
relationships more easily.

Background
Incidence Rate:
Incidence expresses the number of new cases of cancer which occur
in a defined population of disease. The incidence rate is the number
of events in a specified period of time.
Incidence Rate can be expressed in following three ways:
Crude Rate: Number of cancer cases per one lakh population in a
year.
Age Adjusted Rate: Standardization of incidence rate according to
age of patients. Used to compare two areas.
Truncated Rate:

Background
National Air Quality index(AQI):
Air Quality Index (AQI) is a measure of
air pollution.
Pollutants measured: PM10, PM2.5, NO2,
SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb .
Air pollution is also associated with an
increased risk of lung cancer. In 2013,
a panel formed by International Agency
for Research on Cancer (IARC) came to
the conclusion that there was enough
evidence to say that outdoor air
pollution can cause cancer.

Pollutio
n Level
1

Good (0-50)

Satisfactory (51-100)

Moderately polluted
(101200)

Poor (201-300)

Very poor (301-400)

Severe (401-500)

AQI

Problem Statement
Data related to following
types of cancers, for different
regions in India, was
collected:
Lung Cancer
Oesophagus Cancer
Mouth Cancer
Thyroid Cancer
Skin Cancer

Data related to following

carcinogenic and
geographical factors were
collected:
Air Quality Index
Altitude of regions
Tobacco Consumption
Life Expectancy Rate

Objective of the study is to correlate these carcinogenic and

geographical factors with different types of cancers.

Analysis & Results

Data Collection
Data related to cancer cases and their location was collected
from National Cancer Registry program.
Altitude and sea level of regions were collected from Google
Map.
Air Quality Index data collected from Central Pollution Control
Board.
Tobacco consumption rate was collected from Indian Journal of
Cancer.
After collecting all these datasets, they were converted to .shp
files.

Analysis
Variation of Breast
Cancer with
Elevation of region in
GIS :
It can be observed
that lower altitude
reasons like coastal
regions have higher
cases of occurrence
compared to high
altitude regions like
north eastern part of

Analysis
Variation of Life
Expectancy vs
Truncated Rate in
GIS:
It can be observed
that states with
higher cases of life
expectancy have
lower cases of cancer

Analysis
Variation of Tobacco
Consumption , Air
Pollution and combined
cases of Mouth,
oesophagus and lung
cancer : It can be
observed that these
type of cancer cases
are more in region
where pollution level is
high or where tobacco
consumption is more.

Analysis
Variation of Thyriod
Cancer cases :
drastically high case of
thyroid cancer in region
under Kerala and north
eastern part of India.
This can be because of
reason that both of
these regions have
higher land mass
covered with evergreen
dense forest.

References
Press Trust of India, 1,300 Die of Cancer Every Day in India, NDTV,
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/1-300-die-of-cancer-every-day-inindia-763726
Miquel Porta (2014). A Dictionary of Epidemiology (6th ed.). New
York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-997673-7. Retrieved
16 July 2014.
P. Boyle and D.M. Parkin , Statistical Methods for Registries,
International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert
Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cidex 08, France
Central Pollution Control Board, www.cpcb.nic.in
Three-Year Report of Population Based Cancer Registries 20122014,National center for disease informatics and research

Thank You!