Traditional cancer data collection has been primarily from hospitals. As medical advances have occurred, diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers has moved from the acute care setting to being fully cared for within a physician/medical office and therefore never received and counted by the registry. The NCCR supplements hospital data with reports from non-hospital sources such as facilities and providers who diagnose and/or treat cases that are not seen in a hospital. In addition, death certificates and pathology laboratory reports are used to help identify cases that are missed in this routine reporting by hospitals, health care facilities and providers of health care offices. Any duplicate reports are consolidated in the data editing process. The purpose of this concerted effort is to alleviate under-reporting or a delay in reporting which can adversely affect incidence rates and research from incomplete data collection.
NCCR annually compiles comprehensive cancer data collected for all years of operation and submits a report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) and for analysis, certifications, and inclusion in national cancer statistics.
Timely and complete cancer data are used to evaluate the appropriateness of measures for the prevention and control of cancer and conducting comprehensive epidemiological surveys of cancer and cancer-related deaths statewide and nationally.
NCCR is a vital tool for monitoring the incidence of cancer within the state and sharing that information with health care professionals, researchers, and the general public.