Joinpoint Trends - Differences

The trends in reported cancer rates for selected racial groups for specified time periods are summarized by the annual percent changes associated with each line segment obtained from fitting a joinpoint regression model to cancer rates for a time period in question. State Cancer Profiles uses the Joinpoint Regression Program (Version 5.0.1).

Recent trends on this site are average annual percent changes (AAPCs) representing the most recent 5 years of data. The entire joinpoint regression line is used to help compute the AAPC. As a result of the differences in the time periods used to fit the models, the AAPCs estimated using the shorter series will be subject to more variability than the ones using the longer series. Although the AAPC from two series estimated using different time periods are not technically comparable, these results can be useful to provide an approximate summary of the trends for practical purposes. To learn more about fitting trends using joinpoint models see http://surveillance.cancer.gov/joinpoint. To learn more about computing AAPCs see https://surveillance.cancer.gov/joinpoint/.

There are two main types of trends on the State Cancer Profiles web site.

Historical Trends, available on the Historical Trends Graph:

Recent Trends, available in numerous places.


Incidence Data

Historical Trends, available on the Historical Trends Graph:
Recent Trends, available in numerous places: The following SEER Registries use 2000+ for their Historical and Recent Trend joinpoint computations:


The Puerto Rico data do not have enough years of available data to do the joinpoint computation. The recent trends for this area are EAPCs calculated in SEER*Stat.


Mortality Data

Historical Trends, available on the Historical Trends Graph:

Recent Trends, available in numerous places:
  • The following counties do not use 1990+ in their joinpoint computation for All Races, White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, American-Indians/Alaskan Natives Non-Hispanic, Asian Pacific Islanders Non-Hispanic, and Hispanic :


    Using 1994+:
    Aleutians East Borough, AK
    Aleutians West Census Area, AK
    Dillingham Census Area, AK
    Lake and Peninsula Borough, AK
    Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, AK
    Yakutat City and Borough, AK

    La Paz County, AZ
    Yuma County, AZ

    Using 2000+:
    Hawaii, HI
    Honolulu, HI
    Kalawao, HI
    Kauai, HI
    Maui, HI

    Using 2002+:
    Adams County, CO
    Boulder County, CO
    Broomfield County, CO
    Jefferson County, CO
    Weld County, CO
  • The Puerto Rico data do not have enough years of available data to do the joinpoint computation. The recent trends for this area are EAPCs calculated in SEER*Stat.