Cancer registries are databases of information about patients diagnosed with cancer. Cancer registries continually collect, manage, and analyze this information to provide insight and inform decision-making on cancer care. The 3 hospitals within the RCN each manage their own individual cancer registries.
From 2014-2019, the 3 hospital registries were also consolidated into a single and separate RCN Cancer Registry to facilitate data analysis for quality improvement projects and the reporting needs of the RCN’s individual quality of care projects. Since 2012, approximately >130K new cases were added to cancer registry across the RCN with >1M records captured. Overall, the RCN Cancer Registry accounts for approximately 15% of all cases across Québec. However, completeness of the data on average combining the RCN sites was approximately 50% with significant gaps in data points such as clinical staging.
Beginning in 2020, the RCN shifted its focus in a major way to supporting the hospitals in improving the completeness of their registries. The RCN Quality Council oversaw an analysis of registry completeness, identified priority areas for improvement and advised on the following recommendations/initiatives:
- Provide funding for additional cancer registrar hires to assist with case backlogs
- Process changes to improve staging completeness for the 4 major cancers - lung, breast, colorectal and prostate
- Expand data capture in treatment and outcomes beyond the 4 major cancer
- Establish a community of practice for cancer registrars
- Develop a new global RCN Cancer Registry that is sustainable and robust
- Improve the digital means of data acquisition
The RCN is excited to lead this initiative towards establishing the RCN Cancer Registry as the premiere quality registry for the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux, the Programme Québécois de Cancérologie and other healthcare networks.
RCN Retreat video of Dr. Aprikian’s presentation The RCN Cancer Registry