Want to learn more about the cancer registry profession?

You’ve come to the right place.

Chances are you know someone who has had cancer. But what you might not know is that every detail of that person’s treatment—their demographics, diagnosis, tumor characteristics, stage of the disease, treatment and outcomes—has been tracked in a cancer registry. These information systems, dedicated to the collection and management of data on people in the U.S. with cancer, play a critical role in cancer surveillance. Cancer data serves as the foundation for new cancer research and a means to plan and evaluate cancer prevention and treatment efforts.

There are two primary types of cancer registries: population-based registries and hospital-based registries. Population-based registries track cases in a defined population (typically a geographical area) and emphasize using data for epidemiology (in other words, looking at a community to find possible causes of health outcomes and diseases in particular populations). Hospital-based registries keep data on patients diagnosed or treated at a particular facility, with an aim toward improving care at that particular hospital. A third, less common, type of registry is a special cancer registry, which collects and maintains data on a specific type of cancer, like breast or lung cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program:

Cancer registries collect data to identify emerging cancer trends in order to understand contributing factors; investigate health disparities in cancer incidence, prevalence, mortality, and survival; understand patterns of care in the cancer-patient population; and find out the impact of early detection and treatment advances on cancer incidence and outcomes.

These provide important statistics to the public, which can include individuals who are epidemiologists, researchers, public health planners, legislators, physicians and other healthcare professionals, and more.