December 20, 2024

Update on SEER POC Diagnosis Year 2021 Study

Dimitra Fellman

Research Associate III, POC Project Manager

This year’s SEER Patterns of Care (POC) study is underway. SEER POC Studies are mandated by the NCI to describe, characterize, and compare practice patterns and treatments provided for cancer in different geographic areas of the United States. This activity requires us to contact hospitals and physicians to enhance the information that we receive. CRGC has participated in all POC studies since it became part of the SEER program in 2001.  

The research team at the Cancer Registry of Greater California (CRGC), a program of the Public Health Institute (PHI), has been reaching out to health information management departments at medical facilities to request medical records for re-abstraction. Thank you to those who have already assisted with processing these requests. If we have not received responses from your facility's HIM, we will be reaching out in the next month to your hospital tumor registry to request assistance in obtaining these records. If you receive one of these requests, we’d appreciate your help coordinating with your colleagues in health information management and medical records to send the requested records. If you have any questions, please reach out to us via email at poc@crgc-cancer.org 

SEER Annual Data Submission

Judy Vang

Senior Director of Operations

The Cancer Registry of Greater California submitted its annual data to the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program in early November that met the SEER and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) high standards of quality and completeness requirement. The data submission included information for over 117,000 residents of the CRGC catchment area who were diagnosed, treated, or seen with cancer in 2022. On behalf of the CRGC Program, thank you to all the cancer registrars for your continued contributions to this critical effort. The data that cancer registrars collect and curate are of vital importance to the health of the nation.

Trends in Occurrence of Testicular Cancer in California: 2000-2020

Anshu Shrestha, MPH, PhD

Research Scientist III

CRGC’s research unit recently partnered with research clinicians from Hoag Family Cancer Institute and UC Irvine on a study to describe trends in the occurrence of testicular cancer in California and published our finding in BJUI Compass. A summary of the study and the link to the published article are provided below.

Testicular cancer is a rare genitourinary cancer most commonly diagnosed in young men of ages 20-39. Although it is mostly curable, testicular cancer continues to be a public health concern due to the long-term medical, psychological, and social burden associated with treatment and its short- and long-term effects. Moreover, its incidence continues to rise globally as well as in the United States (US), and the reasons for this are not well-understood. In the US, while the highest incidence rates are reported among non-Hispanic White (NHW) males and the lowest among non-Hispanic Black (NHB) males, the incidence rates have increased the most among Asian/Pacific Islander (PI) and Hispanic males, according to a study that examined SEER data from 2001-2016. Our goal was to assess recent incidence trends in California across various racial/ethnic groups relying on the California Cancer Registry (CCR) data from 2000 – 2020, the most recent data available at the time of analysis. 

We identified all males diagnosed with testicular cancer in California between 2000 and 2020 (n=23,214). Those with unknown ages were excluded. Annual incidence rates stratified by age and race/ethnicity were calculated using SEER*Stat version 8.4.3. All incidence rates were age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population.

We observed an increasing incidence of testicular cancer in California overall. The rates increased faster in the Hispanic group, from 4.2 cases/100,000 in 2000 to 6.7 cases/100,000 in 2020. On the other hand, the NHW group had the highest rated at 7.3/100,000 in 2000 and the rate remained similar at 7.6/100,000 in 2020. Incidence in the NHB group occurred at a lower rate (1.7/100,000) and remained stable at 2/100,000 in 2020. Incidence rate for the Asian/PI group dipped from 2/100,000 in 2000 to 1.2/100,000 in 2002 and then rose steadily to 2.5/100,000 in 2020. When stratified by age (<40 vs 40+), we observed that this increasing trend is mainly observed in the younger population, particularly in the Hispanic and Asian/PI groups. 

This study shows that the incidence of testicular cancer continues to rise in California and the rising trend is more prominent among Hispanic and Asian/PI males under 40 years of age. Future studies are needed to understand what is causing this trend.

More information about this study can be found in the accompanying manuscript recently published in BJUI Compass (https://doi.org/10.1002/bco2.451). This important research would not be possible without the continued efforts of registrars and registry staff to collect and abstract complete and high-quality cancer data.