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Call Notes 

We heard a brief presentation from Dr. Janet Gray of Vassar College, about the challenges of using cancer incidence data over time, including issues such as:

•    There is no central or federal registry that accumulates comprehensive data.
•    Different states may have different ways of gathering and analyzing data.
•    One state may change its way of gathering and analyzing data over time.

We discussed three different models of gathering and analyzing cancer data, one that leads to the conclusion that rates of breast cancer are increasing (the old American Cancer Society (ACS), model), one that shows a steady decrease over the next decade (the new ACS model), and one that shows no change (National Cancer Institute model).

We discussed using new analysis models with old data to compare the difference of the models. What would new models tell us about the controversial past 1/20 to present 1/8 breast cancer risk?

We discussed some of the differences and similarities between SEER data and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) data. How are these funded? Does it make sense to fund two different systems, or should we be trying to find a way to invest in just one?

We discussed using natural resources like Kaiser Permanente, California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), and others to gather more comprehensive data.

We discussed the lag time of cancer data - should we be focusing on getting real data from past years out faster, versus focusing on predictive future models?

We discussed how successful Canada has been in their cancer data analysis, and what we can learn from their system.