Your Career Goes Further with a CTR

Invest in yourself. Earning your Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) credential can help you take your career from “good enough” to great. And the Florida Cancer Registrars Association (FCRA) will help you get there by connecting you with knowledgeable, experienced mentors, and education resources. Once you have a CTR, you’ll have access to the continuing education opportunities you need to maintain your certification.

About the CTR credential

Holding a CTR credential makes you part of an elite group. It is the standard for professional excellence in cancer registry, and it sets you up for more and better job opportunities. And when we say better, we mean better—the National Cancer Registration’s Salary and Compensation Considerations for Cancer Registrars reports that CTRs earn $25,000 more than cancer registrars without credentials, earning an average annual salary of $72,720, compared to $47,338.

Since it was first offered in 1983, about 6,000 people have earned a CTR credential, and 5,000 of your colleagues hold a CTR today, according to the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA), whose Council on Certification oversees the administration of the CTR exam as well as credential maintenance.

A CTR Shows Commitment to Ongoing Improvement

To maintain certified status, you must participate in at least 20 hours of continuing education (CE) coursework every two years. This requirement ensures you stay abreast of new developments in oncology in registry data management and that your skills are continuously enhanced and reinforced. Throughout the year, the FCRA offers CE-eligible activities such as regional workshops, teleconferences and an annual seminar to ensure you get the credits you need when you need them. In addition, the NCRA has a list of CE-eligible activities here.

A CTR Credential is Valuable

The CTR promotes excellence in the field of cancer registry. It establishes a standard of knowledge and experience in the profession, and it promotes registrars’ ongoing professional growth by pushing registrars to achieve and maintain credentialing via continuing education studies.

The CTR is awarded to cancer registry professionals who pass the National Cancer Registry Association’s certification examination, but before you can even take the exam, you have to meet certain criteria regarding education attainment and clinical or on-the-job experience. The NCRA has detailed the eligibility requirements here.

Beyond offering you salary negotiating power, a CTR credential shows the world—and your employer—that you are committed to your profession and to continuing to stay in the know about the latest in cancer screening, diagnosis, staging and treatment. Plus, a CTR credential opens up more job possibilities. For instance, Commission on Cancer (CoC)-accredited facilities require that case abstracting be performed by someone with CTR certification. CoC-accredited facilities also require you hold CTR in order to be a member of the cancer committee.

Click here to learn more from the NCRA about CTR certification.