Overview of Karmanos Cancer Institute Catchment Area (Karmanos-CA)

Overview of Karmanos Cancer Institute Catchment Area (Karmanos-CA)

One of the responsibilities of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) and the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) at Karmanos Cancer Institute is to monitor cancer burden, disparities, and needs throughout the Karmanos catchment area. This page is intended provide our Karmanos and Wayne State University faculty, scientists, trainees, and community partners critical descriptive information about cancer in the communities we serve.

We have expanded the way in which catchment area data can be visualized through the Cancer InFocus program.

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Catchment Area Overview

Karmanos Cancer Institute has a long and distinguished history as an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center serving the state of Michigan. In 2014, Karmanos affiliated with McLaren Health Care, and there are now 17 sites serving a catchment area covering 46 of Michigan’s 83 counties. The catchment area is now defined as the 46-county area that is home to 95% of our patients; Karmanos serves 31% of new cancer patients in this region. To better describe and address this diversity, the catchment area is divided into five regions, consistent with Community Health Assessment Regions as defined by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The Karmanos catchment area is home to 6.8 million residents, a population greater than that of 33 U.S. states. The catchment area is diverse across a range of characteristics.

The Southeast region includes the city of Detroit. Detroit is the largest city in the state of Michigan, with 636,536 residents. Detroit is a resource-challenged area, with a median household income of $39,575 and 31.5% of residents living in poverty compared to 13.5% in the state of Michigan, according to the U.S. Census 2023 estimates. Almost 60% of the census tracts in Detroit are categorized as persistent poverty census tracts (PPCTs). The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines PPCTs as areas wherein 20% or more of the population has been below the federal poverty line since 1990 (click here for census tracts in persistent poverty).

Another population with a strong presence in the Southeast region is individuals of Middle Eastern and North African descent who are not yet recognized by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a racial or ethnic group. It is important to note that because of this, there is no nationally coordinated cancer-related surveillance of this group. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Michigan has the second-largest number of MENA residents (310,087), following California. The Census reports 139,751 MENA residents in Wayne County, located in the Southeast region of the catchment area. This represents 45% of the state’s MENA population. In Wayne County, home to the cities of Detroit and Dearborn, 7.8% of residents identified as MENA alone or in any combination, the highest percentage of any U.S. County.