"Because someone gathered cancer data and looked at survival [rates] over time, my daughters have their lives," declares Louanne Currence. This fact gives the cancer registrar a personal connection to her work.
A registered health information technologist and a certified tumor registrar (CTR), Currence collects and analyzes data on cancer patients. She works at North Kansas City Hospital, in .
Currence's husband, Daryl M. Currence, died in his 30s from a genetic form of thyroid cancer. When he was diagnosed, as an adolescent in the 1960s, little was known about Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type IIB (MEN IIB). By the time their two daughters were born in the early 1980s, understanding had progressed, in part due to cancer registries.
Genetic testing revealed that both girls had prophylactic thyroidectomies, and the microscopic carcinoma that was found was successfully removed.
Colleagues value the contributions of cancer registrars. "A network of cancer registries can be our most potent new weapon against the disease," says John Healey, a physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
"Today thousands of people are living as a result of the type of information we collect and analyze," says Carol Hahn Johnson, CTR, a leader in the field and immediate past president of the National Cancer Registrars Association. "It gives you a sense of pride."
The Scope
Cancer registrars are responsible for helping healthcare professionals see carcinoma's broader picture. By state mandate, all institutions that diagnose and treat cancer must report newly diagnosed cases to a statewide registry. After checking the data for accuracy, state registrars report it to either the Centers for Disease Control's National Program of Cancer Registries or the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program.
Registrars identify reportable cancer cases by reviewing reports from their own or other medical facilities and by gathering information on outcomes from doctors and, sometimes, patients. The registrars then analyze the data and record it in a concise standardized format.
The data lets researchers and epidemiologists monitor cancer incidence and treatment success. It assists in the development of new and more effective cancer therapies as well as new prevention and control measures.