By JIMMY LAWTON

While St. Lawrence County is among the nine counties in New York with highest lung cancer rates, it finds itself in the middle of the pack when all cancer varieties are considered, according to a U.S. Surgeon General’s report.

The county has an annual rate of approximately 88 cases of lung cancer per 100,000 people. The average across the state is about 64 cases per 100,000 people, the report shows.

However, when it comes to cancer in all of its various forms, St. Lawrence County has about 510 people afflicted with cancer per 100,000 each year. That’s the lowest of any North Country county and about average across the state. Clinton County is ranked highest among the northern counties with 556 people per 100,000, followed by Jefferson County with 520 per 100,000.

Compared to other counties, St. Lawrence has high rates of lung, skin, bladder, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It ranks at or below average in rates of breast, esophagus, brain, kidney, leukemia, oral, ovary and pancreatic cancer, the report shows.

Although the county is ranked among the lowest for breast cancer rates, breast cancer is actually more common throughout the county than lung cancer with approximately 105 instances per 100,000 people, according to the report.

The state average is about 129 breast cancer cases per 100,000.

Although breast cancer is more common, those afflicted with the cancer have a much higher five-year survival rate than those afflicted with lung cancer, according to data from cancer.org.

According to the website, at stage one the breast cancer survival rate is 100 percent. At stage two it is 93 percent. At stage three it drops to 72 percent and at stage four it is 22 percent.

For lung cancer, survival rates range from 45 to 49 percent in stage one. At stage two they range from 30 to 31 percent. At stage three they drop to 5 to 14 percent and drop to 1 percent at stage 4, according to cancer.org.

The report shows the highest rates are largely in the northern portion of the state, but a few of the counties with high rates are also located in western and central New York.

Southern counties have substantially lower lung cancer rates, the report shows.

According to the data from the Surgeon General’s Report, women in St. Lawrence County are more likely to be afflicted with bladder, skin and breast cancer than males in the area.

St. Lawrence County men are more likely to be afflicted by colon, leukemia and lung cancer than women are.

Other cancers were comparable between the sexes, the report shows.

Across the nation, New York State has one of the highest rates of cancer with 492 instances per 100,000 people. Only two states have higher rates: Kentucky and New Hampshire.

Although New York is among the states in the nation with the highest rate when considering all forms of cancer, it is about average for rates of lung and breast cancer.

According to St. Lawrence County Public Health, one in three people is diagnosed with cancer at some time in their lives and cancer occurs in three out of every four families.

In New York about 25 percent of all deaths are due to cancer.

St. Lawrence County formerly offer cancer prevention services to residents, but cut its offerings in recent years as it’s struggled to balance a budget.

St. Lawrence Health Initiative has taken over many of the services formerly provided the county such as screenings.

Details on the surgeon general’s report can be found at http://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/map/map.withimage.php?36&001&001&00&0&01&0&1&6&0#results.