UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: South Carolina is a very rural state, with a large minority population [African Americans]. Questions have been posed for the completeness of this states cancer incidence data, owing to exceptionally high mortality rates, and questions of the respective case-fatality rates. Two cancer sites: melanoma and oral cancer were studied for the completeness of case ascertainment, owing to the dependence of these two sites upon the reporting practice of two clinical specialties, e.g., dermatologists, and oral surgeons.

Methods: A comparison of reportable cancer cases identified from clinician offices was performed as one component of this analysis. The conventional p-chart time-series methods were also applied regionally and by race-gender sub-groups. For the melanoma analyses, expanded data items were collected for assessment of differential outcomes for selected case categories. The time period of 1997-2003 was chosen for established evidence of case on the part of the South Carolina Central Cancer Registry [e.g., certification by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries]

Results: These analyses are still in progress at the time for this abstract submission. However, early finding have demonstrated that case-finding for melanoma appears to be more complete than with oral cancers. This may be impacted by the differential care-seeking by the at-risk populations. Melanoma is predominantly a Caucasian disease, whereas oral cancer affects both races. Differential care-seeking patterns and barrier to access may explain some of the regional and race-specific variation with completeness of reporting for these two cancers. Augmented, case-finding field work has shown benefits for improving these completeness proportions.