Is Your Facility Reporting to the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry?

Every year approximately 16,000 cancer cases are diagnosed, and about 6,000 people die from cancer in Arkansas.  The Arkansas Central Cancer Registry (ACCR) is a population-based registry established at the Arkansas Department of Health in 1996. The purpose of the registry is to collect information for surveillance, research, policy interventions, and to assist initiatives for early detection and prevention. According to the Arkansas State Reporting Law, any entity providing diagnostic or therapeutic services to Arkansans with a cancer diagnosis, should be reporting to the ACCR. The cancer reporting law applies to all types of facilities, including outpatient surgery centers, hematology/oncology clinics, urology clinics, gastroenterology and dermatology clinics, hospices, nursing homes, group physician offices, and hospitals. Medical facilities should be reporting to the ACCR within six months of diagnosing and/ or treating a patient using the following options, both of which would require the use of the CDC reporting software, WebPlus: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/tools/registryplus/wp.htm

• Hiring a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) to abstract and submit cases to the ACCR, or
• Contracting with an outsourcing company or a local CTR to submit the cases.

Please contact Abby Holt, ACCR Director, at (Abby.Holt@arkansas.gov or 501-661-2463) for questions related to reporting requirements. More information can be found from the ACCR website: (http://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/programs-services/topics/arkansas-cancer-registry).