Cancer Control and the Central Cancer Registry of North Carolina

The North Carolina Central Cancer Registry provides core data for focused epidemiological and public health ap- proaches to cancer control in North Carolina. Since 1946, North Carolina law has required that new diagnoses of cancer be reported. From 1970 to 1985, the state-operated cancer registry used voluntary reporting, but in 1986 concerns about environmental issues and recognition of the paucity of cancer data led to a new legislative mandate. General Statutes 130A-205 through 130A-215 address cancer registration and data based research. They established a Central Cancer Registry (CCR) as the basis of a population-based cancer surveillance system. In 1994, the National Program for Cancer Registries initiated a program to enhance the capa- bility of registries and facilitated the establishment of na- tional standards. The formats for all data items were brought into compliance with the guidelines of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.1 The General Statutes were updated in 1999, requiring that all health care providers report cancer cases, thus giving the CCR access to more complete data.