April 9, 2025

Happy National Cancer Registrars Week to All the Cancer Registrar Heroes!

Judy Vang

Senior Director of Operations

Cancer Registry of Greater California

On behalf of the Cancer Registry of Greater California, we thank you for your continued dedication and commitment to providing high quality data for cancer surveillance and research. This year’s theme “Data Superheroes” is very fitting of your heroic role. As the saying goes, “not all heroes wear capes” and this could not be truer for the cancer registrar professionals. Your heroic contributions to cancer surveillance and research are saving and changing lives every day. Cancer research, prevention, and treatment programs are all possible with the data that you carefully collect and check to ensure accuracy and completeness. Keep up the great work!

Happy National Cancer Registrars Week!

Stephanie Phipps, BS, ODS

Director, Data Quality and Reporting and Facility Compliance Officer

Cancer Registry of Greater California

ODS truly are “Data Superheroes”. The dedication and diligence of Oncology Data Specialists demonstrate a heroic effort helping to advance the identification of causes, treatments, and cures for cancer. The work you do is important and very much appreciated! I want to thank all ODS for their continued endeavors to collect, review, and ensure that we are receiving high quality data!    

Wishing you a Happy National Cancer Registrars Week!

Kyle L. Ziegler, BS, ODS

Director, Data Management

Cancer Registry of Greater California

I want to wish all ODS’s a Happy National Cancer Registrars Week! This years theme of Data Superhero’s defines what you do accurately. Without your expertise and dedication, Cancer Surveillance would not be where we are today. Thank you for everything you do and for your dedication to the Cancer Registry and Cancer Research! You are appreciated in more ways than you know.  

From the Research Unit

Anshu Shrestha, MPH, PhD

Research Scientist III/ Study PI

Cancer Registry of Greater California

Update on SEER Patterns of Care (POC) Diagnosis Year 2021 Study

The Research Unit (RU) at the Cancer Registry of Greater California (CRGC), a program of the Public Health Institute, is currently working towards completing this year’s SEER POC study. The study’s purpose is to investigate patterns of care for 150 patients diagnosed with high grade ovarian cancer (including fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers) and 450 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021. This includes information about diagnosis, treatment, biomarkers, and therapies offered, as well as any financial or other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care. 

Our staff are prioritizing contacting provider facilities and clinics to obtain the remaining medical records and physician verification forms necessary for data abstraction and submission to SEER/NCI. The success of the SEER POC study relies on the help from hospital registrars and clinical staff to access necessary medical records and ensure we have complete information on all selected cases. Many facilities and clinics have already provided the requested materials. For this, we are greatly appreciative! There are a few medical requests (from facilities) and several physician verification forms (from providers’ clinics/offices) still pending. We need all the records by the end of April to successfully complete the study. We are again seeking your support to ensure timely responses to any pending requests for medical records and physician verification of treatments. Please help us spread the word to your colleagues in health information management, medical records, and clinics who may have received these requests. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please email us at poc@crgc-cancer.org.  

Update on THRIVE Study

The CRGC research team is currently enrolling eligible patients recently diagnosed with metastatic (stage IV) colorectal cancer to participate in “Tracking Health and Responses to Living with Cancer (THRIVE) Study.” The research team began mailing survey packages to eligible patients in February 2025. The packages, aside from the survey questionnaire, include study details, including consent language, a link to online participation, information about researchers/institutes involved, cancer registry roles/responsibilities, and THRIVE Study and CCR brochures.  

Eligible individuals include adults aged ≥18 from CRGC’s catchment areas diagnosed with metastatic (stage IV) colorectal cancer within the last 2-13 months (i.e., diagnosis years: 2024-2025). The CRGC team is tasked with contacting up to 2,500 eligible patients with the goal of enrolling up to 900 individuals over the next three years. The success of this study will depend on how updated the registry data are on recently diagnosed colorectal cancer cases at the time of sample selection. This is where we need the support of hospital registrars.

We would greatly appreciate it if you would prioritize reporting on colorectal cancer diagnoses made in 2024.



If you work closely with cancer care providers, please help us spread the word about this study so they can share it with their patients. Details of this study and information on research team/collaborators can be found at: https://thrivestudy.georgetown.edu/