LSUHSC's Louisiana Tumor Registry wins Data Quality Profile First Place Award from NCI

The Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute awarded the Louisiana Tumor Registry at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health with a 2012 Data Quality Profile First Place Award. LSUHSC's Louisiana Tumor Registry is the only SEER expansion registry to receive a first place award. This is the fourth time LSUHSC's Louisiana Tumor Registry has earned this award, and the third consecutive year. The SEER Program is the most authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States.

The SEER Program evaluates the quality of data from each registry every year. Sixteen measures are evaluated, including the estimate completeness of cases (for computing incidence rate), percent unknown or missing for key demographic and tumor variables, and follow-up rates (for calculating survival).

"This honor not only recognizes the commitment to high quality of Dr. Vivien Chen, who led the Louisiana Tumor Registry until very recently, and the staff here at the LSUHSC School of Public Health, but the dedicated efforts of the staffs of the regional registries and hospital registries throughout the state with whom we collaborate," notes Dr. Xiao-Cheng Wu, Associate Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health.

The primary function of a cancer registry is to record the occurrence of cancer in a population. Information collected includes demographics, tumor characteristics, stage of disease at diagnosis, treatment, and survival. Information on risk factors is usually not available from the reporting sources. However, data from the registry often provides clues to be pursued in special research studies conducted by qualified scientists with external funding.

The SEER Program collects cancer incidence and survival data from 18 population-based cancer registries in the United States. It is considered to be the standard for quality among cancer registries around the world. Quality control has been an integral part of SEER since its inception.

Cancer is a reportable disease in the State of Louisiana. Hospitals, private pathology laboratories, radiation centers and health care providers who diagnose or treat cancer are required by law to report the cancer cases to the Louisiana Tumor Registry which was transferred from the Louisiana Office of Public Health to LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans in 1995. The Registry includes the central office located at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health and eight regional offices - Regions I and III at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans; Region II at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge; Region IV at Acadiana Medical Research Foundation in Lafayette; Region V at Christus St. Patrick Hospital of Lake Charles; and Regions VI, VII and VIII at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Each regional registry is responsible for ascertaining all cancer cases from all possible sources in its region. The central office consolidates, processes, edits, compiles, and analyzes the data as well as ensures complete, timely and high quality data.

Source: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center