Cancer reporting is mandated by federal and state law. The Cancer Registry of Greater California (CRGC) collects and reports cancer data to the State of California and the federal government. The data collected enables researchers, clinicians, policy makers, public health professionals, and members of the public to monitor the burden of cancer, evaluate the success of programs, perform research activities, and identify additional needs for cancer prevention and control efforts at national, state, and local levels.
The National Cancer Act was signed into law in 1971. The law provided funding to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and created the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. The SEER program provides funding to a limited number of states and geographical regions in an effort to reduce the burden of cancer among the U.S. population. California is one of those states that report cancer data to the SEER program. Later in 1992, Congress established the Cancer Registries Amendment Act, which provided funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assist states in creating a cancer registry to collect cancer cases. Together, CDC’s NPCR and SEER, collect data for the entire U.S. population.
The CRGC is one of three cancer registries in California that receives funding from SEER, NPCR, and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to collect and analyze cancer data. The data that the CRGC must collect includes patient demographics, primary tumor site, tumor morphology and stage at diagnosis, first course of treatment, and follow-up for vital status. The data is provided to the California Central Cancer Registry (CCR), SEER, and NPCR.
