United States · Cancer clinical-trial access

Research Deserts

The newest cancer clinical trials concentrate at NCI-designated cancer centers — and most of the country is nowhere near one. — U.S. counties sit more than a 2-hour drive from the nearest one; for millions of patients, a trial is a road trip, not an option.

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counties in severe research deserts

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states with no NCI-designated cancer center

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counties with no NCI center within 3 hours

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counties > 60 min from the nearest NCI center

Research-desert severity

hover a county

most unmet need first

How a “desert” is measured

Access

For each county we take its geographic center and find the nearest of the 69 NCI-designated cancer centers that treat patients, then estimate the drive (great-circle distance × a road factor, at ~55 mph).

Reach

We count how many NCI-designated centers are reachable within 60, 120, and 180 minutes — the trial-capable centers within a day's round trip.

Severity score

Severity scales with drive time to the nearest center (0 = at a center, 100 = 4+ hours away). Higher = more isolated from trial-capable cancer care.

Real County boundaries & land area (U.S. Census / TIGER). Real NCI-Designated Cancer Center locations (National Cancer Institute). Estimate Drive times are modeled from county centroids (great-circle distance × road factor, ~55 mph) — for planning, not navigation. Cities with several centers (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles) are spread slightly on the map for legibility; analytics use true coordinates.