Study Finds County’s Prostate Cancer Rate High : Health: A three-year survey shows the area’s reported figures rank third in the state. But that may be due to effective detection.

Ventura County has one of the highest prostate cancer rates in California and an overall cancer rate slightly above the state average, according to data released Wednesday by state health officials.

Results of the California Cancer Registry’s 1988-1991 cancer survey show that the prostate cancer rate in the county was 120 cases per 100,000 men during the three-year period--compared to 104 cases per 100,000 men statewide.

At 123 per 100,000, Santa Barbara had the highest rate of prostate cancer in the state, followed by San Diego with 121 per 100,000. Ventura, Solano and Fresno counties came in tied for third.

Lung cancer was the leading cause of death by cancer, both in the county and the state, followed by breast cancer and prostate cancer.

There were 792 deaths from lung cancer, 254 from breast cancer and 19 from prostate cancer in the county during the period studied, which put them all at about the same rates as the state.

The rate for all types of cancer in the county was 377 cases per 100,000 people while the state rate was 372 per 100,000 people. Nationwide, the rate was 376.6.

County health officer Lawrence Dodds said the high reported rate of prostate cancer in the county might have occurred because of comprehensive physical exams and sophisticated detection equipment.

In addition to a digital rectal exam, many physicians in the county perform blood tests to screen for the cancer and some use ultrasound, Dodds said.

“This is a hidden cancer,” Dodds said. “In many cases, if you don’t look for it, you don’t necessarily know it’s there.”

Meanwhile an average of 30 cases of thyroid cancer among women were reported in the county each year, making the county’s rate almost twice as high as the state’s.

As with prostate cancer, the high thyroid cancer rate in Ventura County may be the result of better detection and reporting, said John Young, who supervises the cancer survey for the state Department of Health Services.

“I don’t want you to think we have an epidemic,” Young said. “Breast cancer occurs at 10 times that rate.”

Five deaths from thyroid cancer were reported in the county during the three years included in the report.

Since 1985, cancer cases in California have been closely tracked. In 1988, the state cancer registry was expanded to cover the entire population of California through 10 regional registries.

Detailed cancer figures for the state and each region were released for the first time two years ago. Those numbers were incorporated into the study released Wednesday, Young said.

Dodds said the new information will help public health officials design effective cancer prevention programs, such as health awareness and anti-smoking campaigns.

“There are some things that turned up in the study that we suspected, but couldn’t verify,” Dodds said. “Now we have solid data to back us up.”

One such figure showed that both in Ventura County and statewide, whites are twice as likely as Latinos to die of cancer.

Diet patterns are in large part responsible for the discrepancy, Young said, acknowledging that the same foods that may help reduce cancer risk among Latinos are often blamed for contributing to a high rate of diabetes.

“What protects you from one thing puts you at high risk for another,” he said. “It’s like we came here to die and God’s gonna get you one way or another, so which way do you prefer to go?”