Normally this is my favorite time of year: the colors of the leaves start changing and the temperatures start to dip making a walk in the morning or evening beyond delightful. However, we've suffered some sorrowful events recently that make us pause and take notice. Last month we lost a pillar in the cancer registry community when April Fritz died September 12th from pancreatic cancer. Many of you have had the distinct pleasure of having learned from April in one of her week-long training sessions or in a presentation at a local, state or national conference. She will be sorely missed. Then the tragedy struck at Las Vegas with the senseless deaths of fifty-eight people and injuries to over five hundred. And right now so much of our state is up in flames. My thoughts and prayers go out to each of you that may be touched by these deadly and destructive fires. When you can, please take a moment or two to appreciate what we lost, but also to feel gratitude for the opportunities we had (such as attending one of April's workshops), as well as what we continue to have.

We start this issue with an article by our newest Research Associate, Amy Klapheke, on some interesting findings in treatment and disparity with women in cervical cancer. Amy 

joined the Cancer Registry of Greater California last October as a Research Associate III. She is especially interested in identifying disparities in cancer treatment and survival and studying how social determinants of health are associated with patient outcomes. She is also pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at U.C. Davis with an emphasis in epidemiological methods and cancer research. Her current work focuses on health-related quality of life in older women with gynecological cancer. She earned her BA/BS in Zoology from Miami University in Ohio, and holds a MPH from the Colorado School of Public Health.

Taina Valone, RHIA, CTR provides an update on an audit that was recently conducted at CRGC on male breast cancer cases to see if gender was correctly coded. You might recall that earlier years were audited in the same manner, and the purpose of this audit was to see if there was any change in results from previous years that were audited, as well as to make sure gender was correctly coded. In addition, Taina shares abstracting tips as well as some visual editing tips to help ensure data quality with regards to gender.

We also share with you an open peer commentary from Dr. Robert McLaughlin and his colleagues, Dr. Rosemary Cress and Dr. Marta Induni on a recently published article by Dr. Lisa M. Lee, the Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on BioEthics Issues. You may at first wonder, "What does this have to do with me?", but if you think about it, we are all doing our part to contribute quality data to our cancer registry and this opportunity explores cancer registries as another valuable resource. 

And lastly we are providing a specific link to the CRGC website where you can find information regarding the changes coming in 2018. Currently posted are two webinars hosted by NAACCR on 2018 Implementation. We will continue to post relevant webinars and resource information to keep you informed.

We hope you find these articles interesting and informative. As always, thanks for all you do to provide accurate, timely and complete data.