Rocky Mountain Arsenal Medical Monitoring Program
Cancer Surveillance

The Arsenal cleanup is designed to prevent exposure and public health impacts. However, in 1998 the Medical Monitoring Advisory Group recommended that the Medical Monitoring Program track citizen health concerns and take advantage of existing Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment public health monitoring programs.

The Colorado Central Cancer Registry at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has been the State’s program for monitoring statewide cancer rates since 1988, and within the Denver metropolitan area since 1979.

Cancers are common diseases in Colorado and throughout the nation. More than 17,000 new cases of cancer are registered annually in Colorado, and on average, approximately one in three Coloradoans will develop cancer in his or her lifetime. The purpose of cancer monitoring in communities surrounding the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is to track the number of cases before, during and after the environmental cleanup. Virtually all cancer cases diagnosed in these communities since 1979 have been reported to the Colorado Central Cancer Registry by Colorado hospitals, pathology labs, outpatient clinics, physicians solely responsible for diagnosis and treatment, and from state Vital Statistics.   Colorado law requires that the Cancer Registry maintain the confidentiality of this information.

Monitoring results from 1979 through 2000 are described in two reports. Results have shown that the number of cancer cases in the communities around the Arsenal was generally not higher than would normally be expected. Higher and lower incidences of cancer were observed for specific sites in the body, but there is no indication these findings were related to living near the Arsenal. The analysis, conclusions and follow up actions can be reviewed in detail in the full reports and citizens’ summaries.

The first report "Analysis of Diagnosed versus Expected Cancer Cases for the Northeast Denver Metropolitan Area in the Vicinity of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, 1979-1996" and accompanying citizens’ summary establishes existing rates of cancer incidence prior to the RMA soil remediation. 

The second report "Analysis of Diagnosed versus Expected Cancer Cases for the Northeast Denver Metropolitan Area in the Vicinity of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, 1997-2000" and accompanying citizens’ summary continues the cancer incidence analysis for the years following the beginning of the RMA soil remediation.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will continue monitoring cancer incidence patterns in the northeast Denver metropolitan area and will publish future reports at this website.

For more information on statewide and county cancer rates and access to statistics and reports on incidence, treatment and survival, and deaths due to cancer, visit the Colorado Central Cancer Registry website.

For additional information on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, please contact the Medical Monitoring Program staff at 303-692-3300.

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