Harris County launches cancer dashboard to map higher-than-expected rates

Harris County launched a cancer dashboard that is already pointing to neighborhoods where rates look higher than expected, including several census tracts in Spring and Klein with elevated bladder, brain, lymphoma, prostate, skin and thyroid cancers. For doctors, public health staff and community groups, the new map offers a sharper way to decide where screening, prevention and outreach should go first.

The county’s East Harris County Cancer Assessment Report examined cancer cases from 2010 to 2020 across 66 census tracts in East Harris County. The dashboard compares observed cases with what would be expected based on overall rates in Texas and in Harris County, and it lets users sort by cancer type, time period and demographic group. Public-facing materials describe 16 cancer types in some places and 17 in others, reflecting different versions of the tool.

The dashboard is explicit about its limits. It does not explain why cancers are appearing at higher-than-expected levels, and it suppresses counts when there are fewer than 11 cases in a cell to protect privacy. The county also says the numbers do not, by themselves, establish causation or prove the presence of a cancer cluster.

Dr. Jo Ann Monroy, senior manager of data analytics and reporting for Harris County Public Health’s Office of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Emerging Diseases, said higher-than-expected rates appear across all of Harris County compared with the state. She said the value of the data is practical, not just academic, because clinicians who know where cancers cluster can better target prevention efforts, screening strategies and patient education.

Monroy said the county still needs more work to understand whether environmental or demographic factors may be tied to the patterns it is seeing. Harris County Public Health said it plans to keep analyzing the findings with environmental exposure data and is looking for longer-term research partnerships. The dashboard also notes prior county reviews of the area and references Texas Department of State Health Services assessments from 2015 and 2025.

The public release lands in a county where residents have talked for years about cancer concerns in East Harris County, and environmental advocates have praised the new level of transparency. Harris County Public Health and the Houston Health Department say the broader data hub is meant to make reports more accessible and to help community partners use recent trends to guide screening, prevention and future research across the county.