LSU Health New Orleans Tumor Registry Earns Top NCI Honor Again

LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health’s Louisiana Tumor Registry is the recipient of a 2019 Data Quality Profile First Place Award from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. Only seven of SEER’s 15 eligible registries received first place data quality awards this year, and 2019 is the 10th consecutive year that LSU Health New Orleans has earned the first place award. The SEER Program is one of the most authoritative sources of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States.

The SEER Program evaluates a number of measures of data quality annually, including the completeness and timeliness of cancer cases, the percentage of unknown for key demographic and tumor variables, and patient follow-up rates. LSU Health New Orleans’ Louisiana Tumor Registry data exceeded the goals in all of the measures.

“This honor recognizes not only the diligent work and tireless effort of the staff here at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health, but also the dedicated efforts of the regional and hospital registry staff members, as well as the reporting health care facilities and providers to achieve our vision of reducing suffering and death from cancer,” notes Dr. Xiao-Cheng Wu, Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health 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. According to the SEER Program, the importance of cancer registries lies in the fact that they collect accurate and complete cancer data that others can use for cancer control and epidemiological and clinical research, public health program planning, and patient care improvement. Ultimately, all of these activities reduce the burden of cancer.

The SEER Program collects cancer incidence and survival data from LSU Health New Orleans Louisiana Tumor Registry and its other 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 Louisiana. Hospitals, pathology laboratories, radiation centers, physicians, nursing homes, hospices, as well as other licensed health care facilities and providers who diagnose or treat cancer are required by law to report cancer cases to LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health’s Louisiana Tumor Registry. The Registry includes the central office with two in-house regions at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health, and regional offices at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Acadiana Medical Research Foundation in Lafayette, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.