LSUHealthNO LA Tumor Registry among 16 Funded by NCI SEER Program

The Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) at LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health has been awarded a one-year $1.8 million contract by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue its work as a SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) Program-designated cancer registry. The award includes options for an additional nine years of funding for a total award of $17,681,015 if all options are exercised. There are now 16 competitively awarded SEER cancer registries in the United States.

“The SEER Program is one of the most authoritative sources of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States,” said Dr. Larry Hollier, Chancellor of LSU Health New Orleans. “Continued designation recognizes the excellence of our Louisiana Tumor Registry and confirms the exceptionally high quality of its data.”

NCI’s SEER Program collects cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries. Quality control has been an integral part of SEER since its inception, and its data serve a critical role as a platform for research on emerging cancer issues, as well as health disparities, access to and quality of care, geographic determinants and more.

“The SEER Program is one of NCI’s most important data collection and dissemination activities,” says Robert T. Croyle, PhD, Director of NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. “In addition to providing essential information for tracking the nation’s progress against cancer, SEER data and data analysis tools provide researchers with unique opportunities to explore and explain cancer trends. The impact of SEER on science, policy, and practice reflects both the quality of the data collected and the creative expertise of the many scientists who use it.”

The primary function of a cancer registry is to record the occurrence of cancer in a population. As with all SEER registries, information collected by LTR includes demographic data, tumor characteristics (including cancer type, biomarkers, and stage of disease), treatment, and survival. Information on risk factors and causes 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 awards during the new funding period will broaden the type of research the LTR infrastructure can support by enabling the collection of more clinically relevant data to complement clinical trials, basic and translational cancer research.

“The successful receipt of this award is attributable to our strong application, competent and hard-working LTR team, a well-functioning infrastructure, and outstanding performance in the past SEER funding period,” notes Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health. “The Louisiana Tumor Registry has advanced so much in the implementation of electronic pathology reporting, collecting timely, complete, and high-quality data, as well as building infrastructure to support cancer research with funding from NCI’s SEER program. This ten-year contract will give us opportunities to further enhance our infrastructure by exploring new mechanisms to auto extract more clinically relevant data from electronic clinical documents, collect patient-report data, as well as biospecimen samples for cancer research, and will expand the use of registry data through collaborations with researchers. I want to thank the administration of LSU Health New Orleans and host institutes for their unfailing support over the years. I also want to thank all LTR central and regional staff for their dedication and diligent work. I also want to express my gratitude to LSU Health New Orleans Emeritus Professor Dr. Vivien Chen, the former director of Louisiana Tumor Registry, for her notable contribution to the LTR's development.”