Cancer is a
fact of American life. One in four deaths in the US is from cancer.
Some of the most extensive data ever gathered on a patient is on
patients with cancer. This information is important as taking care of
cancer requires a lot of attention to detail. To store all this
information tumor registries were created throughout the world. Since
before
1929 registries have been in use. A registry may have a specific
focus on a particular type of cancer, or location of tumor, specific
families, demographic populations, or geographic regions.
Tumor registries contain a complete record for each
patient involved. They generally include the patient's demographic
information, medical history diagnostic discoveries, biological
analysis of the cancer, treatments and reoccurrences. All of this
information is included to help find if there are common factors
between patients. There are some registries that go beyond storing
collected data, they actually store a sample of the tumor for future
analysis. Tissue collection of tumors can be a great help to care
providers and
researchers. They preserve the tissue from a wide array of tumors, so
even rare tumors are easily accessible and studyable. If a tissue is
unidentifyable it can at least be compared to others in the tissue
registry to help with itentification or to at least identify common
traits.All this information can be of great benefit not only to
providers, but to researchers as well. The information gathered must
meet guidelines set by the
International
Agency for Research on Cancer. These guidelines don't require much
data, but place a greater emphasis on high quality data. Additional
data is often gathered to fit the individual circumstance. If data is
being gathered for a tumor registry focusing on a specific family more
complete information about that patient's relatives may be collected.
Humans are not the only ones that enjoy the benefits
of tumor registries. In 1960 two Californian counties started recording
occurrences of cancers in dogs and cats. These registries can assist
with their parallel human registry by gaining a larger sample
population. Pets do enjoy the benefit of not being actively exposed to
carcinogens like smoking or work hazards. Pets are expected to be a
better indicator of carcinogens in the ambient environment.
http://www.iarc.fr/
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR954/MR954.chap4.pdf
Gathering of tissue:
http://www.llu.edu/news/scope/aut97/cttr.htm?PHPSESSID=fdc15ebc7f4d520704fc41b12461...
Lists of registries:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR954/MR954.appf.pdf
http://www.naaccr.org/index.asp?Col_SectionKey=2&Col_ContentID=77
Pet tumor registry:
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/Research/AnimalReg/
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/oct02/021001b.asp