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Tennessee Cancer Reporting System |
The Tennessee Cancer Reporting System was established with the passage of the Tennesseee Cancer Reporting System Act of 1983. The law requires that Tennessee hospitals and laboratories that treat and/or diagnose cancer cases after January 1, 1986 report them to the Department of Health and Environment. Initially, there was no penalty for non-compliance. However, in 1988 cancer reporting activities were made a requirement for hopital licensure to ensure compliance. Collections of laboratory data, though, were never successful and thus discontinued in 1990. In response the Tennessee Cancer Reporting Advisory Committee initiated a Quality Improvement Program which was funded in 1991. A study of the distribution of errors in reporting indicates that smaller hospitals have been the source of most errors.
Although not all skin cancers are required to be reported to the state, Tennessee hospitals must submit data on primary skin cancers diagnosed and/or treated in the facility. Cases of basal, basosquamous, or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin are eligible for reporting if they meet at least one of the following conditions at the time of diagnosis: 1) Primary tumor has invaded regional tissue or nodes or metatatized to distant tissue or 2) Primary tumor originated in the following sites-- lip, eyelid, anus, labia, clitoris, vulva, prepuce, penis, or scrotum. The 1988 American Cancer Society estimates of new nonmelanoma skin cancers based on data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER program) are very close to those recorded by the Tennessee Cancer Reporting System for 1988.
Certain data items have been identified as being required for the case reports and others as being optional. The required information includes personal identifiers: name, social security number, place of residence, date of birth, age at diagnosis, race, sex, usual occupation, family history of cancer, tobacco usage. Information is also requested about the diagnosed cancer and the attending/admitting physician. Place of birth, marital status, spouse's name, industry, other details on tumor, treatment, recurrences, quality of survival, and date of last contact/death are considered optional.
Race/ethnic classifications are generally grouped as either white or nonwhite. The nonwhite population constitutes less than 20% of the state's population. Blacks are the predominant nonwhite component, with other races constituting leass than 1% of the states's 1990 Census population.The skin cancer incidence rates (excluding basal and squamous) per 100,000 residents, age-adjusted directly to the 1970 US population, are 8.1 for white males and 5.6 for white females over the period 1988-1992. The comparative figures for Blacks are 1.0 for males, and 0.9 for females. Incidence data for 1986 through 1992 are available upon request. Data for 1993 should be available in the near future.
Available Reports:
Contact Information:
Becky Jones, Manager
Tennessee Cancer Reporting System
Tennessee Department of Health
Assessment and Planning
Cordell Hull Building, 4th Floor
426 Fifth Avenue, North
Nashville TN 37247-5262Phone: (615) 532-7874
Fax: (615) 532-7904
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