I am pleased to present the fourth annual North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) special edition of the Journal of Registry Management (JRM). Each year, this edition provides opportunities for NAACCR members to publish their cancer surveillance work, experience, and ideas. As is evident in this issue, we are interested in research articles as well as short reports, editorials, and registry-specific experiences. We will begin accepting submissions for next year's issue this fall.
This issue contains 2 editorials, 5 original articles, 1 short report, and the 3 winning posters from the NAACCR 2023 Annual Conference that was held in New Orleans in June. As in prior years, articles published underwent a peer-review process overseen by members of the NAACCR Research and Data Use Steering Committee. The posters underwent a peer-review process to be accepted at the NAACCR Annual Conference, met the criteria to be judged as part of the annual conference proceedings, and won their respective categories.
This volume contains articles that cover a range of topics, including a description of the Panama mortality-based cancer registry (Quintana et al) and assessment of a new site recode to identify rare cancers (Hofer et al). The rare cancer site recode paper is the subject of this issue's continuing education quiz. There is also a collaborative paper led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that assesses the role of HPV in a race cancer, scrotal squamous cell carcinoma. There are 2 papers out of the New York State Cancer Registry, one focused on improving Social Security number information in cancer registries (Qiao et al) and one using residential history to inform life-course exposure to toxic air among mesothelioma patients (Liu et al). Finally, we have a short report on the California Cancer Registry's Patient Contact Database (Movsisyan Vernon et al).
The 2 editorials are equally wide-ranging. One is focused on the ethical issues involved with data collection, use, and disclosure (Hill). The other discusses the need to capture screening methods to better inform breast cancer research (Eby).
The winning posters were presented and judged at NAACCR's first in-person conference in 4 years. The winning poster in the Research and Data Use category was from the Puerto Rico Cancer Registry and explored the association of a premalignant condition, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, with multiple myeloma survival (Castañeda-Avila et al). The Standards and Registry Operations winning poster was out of the Rhode Island Cancer Registry on a template to improve early case reporting for pediatric and young adult cases (Zinkann et al). Finally, the UNCOV-MBD (Uncovering International Disparities in Metastatic Breast Cancer Outcomes) project poster focused on collection of cancer recurrence for breast cancer patients and received an honorable mention (Morgan et al).
As always, I value our collaboration with NCRA and the JRM on the special publication of NAACCR-focused articles. Please note that the findings and conclusions in these reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NAACCR, NCRA, or JRM.
Be well,
Recinda Sherman, MPH, PhD, ODS-C
JRM Guest Editor