Cancer rates are rising faster in Corn Belt states than in the rest of the United States

While cancer rates in the rest of the country are declining, those in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas — known as the Corn Belt — are increasing at an alarming rate, data shows.

The sharp rise in U.S. corn-producing states caught the attention of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, which assembled a panel to study the trend.

One of the experts, Dr. Marian Neuhouser, a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, served on the panel as an expert in nutrition and obesity.

COLORECTAL CANCER CAN CAUSE THESE 4 HIDDEN WARNING SIGNS, EXPERTS SAY

“The panel was created after noticing that cancer incidence trends were increasing at a faster rate in Iowa than in other states,” Neuhouser told Fox News Digital.

Data analysis by The Washington Post based on federal health data sets, found that the number of people diagnosed with cancer in the six Corn Belt states has exceeded the national average since the mid-2010s.

While cancer rates in the rest of the country are declining, those in the Corn Belt states – Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas – are increasing at an alarming rate. (iStock)

In 1999, cancer rates in the Midwest were comparable to the national average. Today, among residents ages 15 to 49, those rates are about 5 percent higher, a trend that began diverging in the 2000s and has gradually widened.

The Post based its findings on data from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which track cancer incidence nationally.

RISK OF COLON CANCER REDUCED BY EATING SPECIFIC TYPES OF VEGETABLES, STUDY SAYS

The analysis compared rates from 1999 to 2022 using multi-year averages for Iowa and excluding 2020 due to pandemic disruptions.

Experts investigate causes

Neuhouser noted that some of the increases are in cancers that are preventable or detectable through screening.

Researchers are examining environmental and lifestyle factors that could be driving this increase.

A group of experts met in Iowa after new figures were released on alarming rises in cancer rates. (iStock)

Outdoor UV exposure and high rates of binge drinking may contribute, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry, part of the National Institutes of Health surveillance network.

The Iowa Environmental Health Sciences Research Center has described the state as a “hot spot for environmental exposures to carcinogens.”

CANCER DEATHS MAKE “ALARMING” INCREASE DUE TO COMMON HEALTH CONDITION, EXPERTS SAID

The region’s soil and groundwater are believed to contain some of the highest natural levels of radon and nitrate in the country, largely due to the use of fertilizers in agriculture. Both substances have been linked to elevated risks of lung and gastrointestinal cancers.

Meanwhile, the widespread application of pesticides and herbicides, including glyphosate, continues to spark debate among scientists and regulators.

Where fields once symbolized abundance, they now raise questions about how the chemicals used to maintain them could affect people’s health. (iStock)

Risk of chemical exposure

Dr. Anne McTiernan, a professor of epidemiology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, analyzed decades of research on glyphosate and cancer risk.

“Glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide, has been used in the United States for decades and is believed to be the most widely used pesticide in the world,” she told Fox News Digital.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as “a 2A carcinogen (“probably carcinogenic to humans”), which is the second highest grade of carcinogen, according to McTiernan.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER

His review of studies conducted through 2025 found that people with long-term, high exposure to glyphosate, such as those working on farms, had about a 40% higher risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma compared to those who were never exposed to it.

Researchers warn that the causes of cancer spikes in the Corn Belt may lie in decades of invisible exposure. (iStock)

This level of increased risk, combined with laboratory evidence that glyphosate can damage DNA and cause cellular stress, is considered strong enough to support a causal link, according to the expert.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

Role of obesity and alcohol

Lifestyle factors also increase risk. According to CDC data, about 21% of Iowa adults report binge drinking or binge drinking, compared to about 17% nationally.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services reports that about 35 percent of adults in the state are classified as obese, placing it among 19 states where the prevalence of obesity is at or above that level. Nationally, the CDC reports an adult obesity rate of about 40%.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES

Neuhouser noted that 13 distinct cancers are linked to obesity.

“Everyone would like to be able to reduce the risk of cancer…from a single exposure, but cancer is so complex that multiple factors usually work together,” she said.