About the Cancer Registry 2007-2008

The Cancer Registry Department plays an integral part in the interdisciplinary cancer care team at Stony Brook University Hospital and Medical Center by collecting relevant cancer information, providing useful statistical summaries, and disseminating information about cancer program standards to members of our clinical, research, administrative and education faculty. Our staff provides input at cancer conferences and committee meetings, and meets the institution’s responsibility for Department of Health mandated cancer reporting.

Cancer registries gather information to assist the healthcare community in better understanding this complex set of diseases. The Stony Brook University Hospital and Medical Center’s Cancer Registry electronically stores records on all types of tumors entered our data base since its inception in 1984. Case ascertainment includes search and analysis of all admissions and ambulatory encounters. The data base contains 38,675 records, with 29,798 added since our active case reference date of January 1, 1993.  Epidemiologic data includes annual follow-up on analytic cases. Security procedures are in place for confidentiality and disaster recovery in accordance with national standards.

Data collected and managed by our certified tumor registrars (CTR) and other trained staff must meet specific quality standards. Continuous quality assessments are performed daily by use of electronically programmed coding edits, weekly by physician advisor review of ten percent of abstracted analytic records, and annually by National Cancer Data Base electronic edit programs.  Our staff participates in continuing education activities required for credentialing, and in professional association activity. Stony Brook hosts Long Island Cancer Registrars Association educational conferences and New York State Department of Health Cancer Registry workshops. Our staff attends National Cancer Registrars Association annual conferences.

Qualified researchers, administrators and clinicians utilize de-identified cancer registry statistics for research, education, grant writing, administrative planning and clinical outcomes measurement activities. Our participation in the American Cancer Society’s Datalinks web-site, Commission on Cancer’s National Cancer Data Base annual calls for data and special studies provides benchmark data for comparisons on major cancer sites. We participated in national surveys of nasopharyngeal and brain glioblastoma multiforme tumors, and in the rapid case ascertainment for studies on mesothelioma and osteosarcoma, and in special studies of breast cancer through 2007. Cancer site incidence tables and outcomes statistics on two sites annually are published in our annual report and shared with our community.  These reports are used for education, research and community outreach. Our annual cancer site incidence tables and site specific surveys with descriptive statistics and comparative outcomes on cancers of the head and neck, lung, ovary, thyroid, colon and rectum, prostate, breast, urinary bladder, melanoma, lymphoma, adult kidney and endometrial cancer are posted and on our Cancer Registry website at http://www.stonybrookhospital.com/Cancerregistry/.

Program leaders are Vencine Kelly, CTR, director; Margaret Celestino, follow-up secretary; Rosario Guerrero, CTR, Audrey Hassett, CTR; Phillip Lindenmuth, CTR, and Carole Whitehead, CTR, abstractors.

Copyright 2002, Stony Brook University Medical Center. Disclaimer.
Modified by the Web Team together with the Cancer Registry.