Statewide Cancer Data Key to Improved Care
Knowing
the problem is an important part of any solution. The University Cancer Research
Fund is partnering with the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry
to
make sure we know just how big North Carolina's cancer problem is.
"North Carolina has been a national leader in cancer surveillance and
research, in large part due to our state's outstanding cancer registry," says
Dr. Shelley Earp, director of UNC Lineberger. The challenge, explains Karen
Knight, director of the NC Central Cancer Registry, is keeping up with the
changing patterns in medical care. "In 1947, North Carolina was an early
leader in making cancer a reportable disease. At that time and years after,
cancer was almost always diagnosed in hospitals."
But, times have changed. "Many cancers, particularly melanoma and prostate
cancers which are of particular concern to North Carolina, are being diagnosed
in outpatient physician practices and may get missed by traditional reporting
systems," says Knight. "UCRF support will add staff and electronic
reporting software that will help us reach out past the hospitals and make
sure we
identify all the cancer cases."
"Enhancing the Registry will strengthen cancer
research in North Carolina, not only at UNC," says Barbara Rimer, dean
of the UNC School of Public Health. Over the past 15 years, the Registry
has
made possible cancer research studies at UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest that
have led to important revelations about cancer as well as successful
competition for federal grant funding.
The Carolina Breast Cancer Study, for example, has created a unique opportunity by combining epidemiologic, genetic, and clinical data from more than 20 counties across North Carolina. Findings from that study helped identify a type of breast cancer that occurs most often in younger African- American women that may help explain important disparities in breast cancer deaths. "Without the Registry," said Rimer, "that study could never have been done. Enhancing the Registry's capabilities to collect high quality treatment data and to code cancer cases by geographic location will make possible even more innovative studies. What's really important, though, is the opportunity to improve care for patients through improved understanding of cancer."