Last updated: October 2023

Author: Vermont Cancer Registry Program, Vermont Department of Health

The percentage completeness calculated by the CDC for our registry is actually 109.5% based on the complex methodology they use. For our purposes, we met our target of 100% of cases complete within 24 months, which exceeds the standard of 95% set by the CDC.

Cancer Registry data are reported by a variety of sources, including Vermont healthcare facilities and providers, out-of-state cancer registries, and laboratories. By law (18 V.S.A. §§ 151-157), health care facilities and providers have six months from the date of first contact with the patient to report cancer data to the Health Department. For Vermont Cancer Registry data to be nearly complete within one year after the close of a diagnosis year, all information must be collected from various sources, reviewed, edited, and de-duplicated.

The most significant driver of this indicator is the speed at which VCR staff can review, edit, and consolidate data that have been reported. Other factors for success include identifying new cases or information from linkages with other data systems and updating the registry database with that information.

The Vermont Cancer Registry (VCR) has been recognized as a Registry of Distinction by the CDC National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR). This indicates that the VCR has met the CDC NPCR National Data Completeness and Quality Standard. VCR has high-quality data that is available to be used for cancer prevention and control activities at the local, regional, and national levels. Meeting these standards allows Vermont data to be included in U.S. Cancer Statistics annual data products.

A second completeness measure is the % of registry cases complete within 12 months of the close of the diagnosis year. For 2022 the VCR achieved 63.7% of complete cases within a year compared to 21.1% in 2021 (standard is 90%).  It is a goal of the VCR to continue to improve this measure in the future to be included as a Registry meeting the Advanced National Data Quality Standards set by the CDC NPCR. 

Federal funding agreements require the Cancer Registry to submit data annually to the National Program of Cancer Registries Cancer Surveillance System. Data must be 95% complete within 24 months of the end of the diagnosis year. This is important in order to have accurate data from across the country for surveillance and prevention activities. Our Vermont Cancer Registry strives to exceed this requirement and have 100% of cases complete within 24 months.

Vermont Healthcare Facilities

Vermont Healthcare Providers

Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems

Other States’ Central Cancer Registries

North American Association of Central Cancer Registries

The Cancer Registry is required to use standardized, CDC-recommended data transmission formats for the electronic receipt of cancer data from hospitals, pathology laboratories, and healthcare providers’ electronic medical records.

Increase the percentage of hospitals reporting to the Cancer Registry that do so electronically.

Increase the percentage of non-hospital facilities reporting to the Cancer Registry that do so electronically.

Use a secure Internet-based File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (https) mechanism to receive electronic data from reporting sources.

As reported in our annual Data Evaluation Report submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Program of Cancer Registries Cancer Surveillance System. Percent Completeness Adjusted for Duplicates: The percentage of observed to expected, unduplicated cases where the expected cases are estimated by using methods developed by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.