UND medical school awarded $1.65 million for cancer registry program

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The UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in collaboration with the North Dakota Department of Health, has been awarded a five-year, $1.65 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to operate the North Dakota Statewide Cancer Registry.

UND experts in the Department of Pathology and the Center for Rural Health (CRH) will supervise the registry, which will serve to provide a cancer early warning system for the state.

The purpose of the North Dakota registry, established in 1997, is to monitor cancer trends, promote research, increase survival, guide policy planning and respond to cancer concerns from patients or the public.

But the wealth of data compiled in the registry would lie useless until analyzed and translated into usable information for health care facilities, patients and the public.

In February of this year, the Department of Health reached out to the UND SMHS and asked if it could form a collaboration to run the registry.

“UND will collect and organize the data so it can be used for public health monitoring as well as research studies,” said Mary Ann Sens, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of UND’s Department of Pathology, who will serve as the program director. “Additional goals of the registry are to establish that cancer treatment in North Dakota is equitable, prompt and meets national standards.”

Additional information on the North Dakota Statewide Cancer Registry can be found at http://www.ndhealth.gov/cancerregistry/about/about.htm

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