Cancer

Individuals with a history of incarceration have higher rates of cancer risk factors, and some work has suggested that incarceration history is associated with a higher risk of cancer mortality. The high incarceration rate of individuals of racially minoritized populations make it especially important to understand how incarceration affects cancer disparities. The central hypothesis of Incarceration and Cancer-Related Outcomes (ICRO) study is that incarceration contributes to racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer detection, quality of treatment, and mortality. We use a mixed-methods approach to address this hypothesis, by linking a tumor registry, correctional system data, and state vital statistics supplemented with in-depth interviews of individuals diagnosed with cancer.