As the oncology landscape rapidly evolves, shaped by regulatory shifts, clinical advancements, and emerging technologies, many healthcare organizations are re-evaluating the future of their cancer registry operations and adopting registry best practices to maintain high-quality care and ensure compliance in this complex environment.
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As cancer rates climb and treatment protocols grow more complex, hospital-based cancer registries are stepping out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Once siloed in the back office, these data hubs are now central to how health systems manage quality, meet new federal reporting mandates, and track the real-time impact of clinical innovation.
With regulatory expectations tightening and technologies like augmented intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) transforming how registrars work, hospitals are rethinking their cancer registry strategies to stay compliant and competitive.
These shifts in how a cancer registry operates couldn’t be more timely. The American Cancer Society projects that in 2025, there will be more than 2 million new cancer cases and over 618,000 cancer-related deaths. Also, a growing number of headlines highlight the steady rise in the incidence of cancer among adults under 50.
These statistics underscore the critical role of cancer registries in tracking incidence, informing treatment strategies, and improving patient outcomes. Indeed, cancer registries are no longer just repositories of historical data; they are fast becoming strategic assets.
Health systems must modernize their cancer registry operations to comply with reporting mandates and deliver on the promise of precision medicine.
The National Cancer Database (NCDB) is ushering in a new era of real-time cancer surveillance. In a major regulatory shift, the NCDB eliminated its annual Call for Data for 2023 diagnosis cases and now requires facilities to submit newly diagnosed or updated cases through the Rapid Cancer Reporting System (RCRS). To maintain compliance, accredited cancer programs had to achieve a 90% submission rate by December 31, 2024, placing new pressure on health systems to ensure timely, accurate case abstraction.
This transition offers a significant advantage: near real-time insights through the RCRS Compliance Report, allowing registrars and administrators to track submission status and course-correct quickly.
In addition, the NCDB has introduced six new quality measures and expanded metrics for gastric and rectal cancers.
Cancer programs must integrate these updates into their reporting practices to maintain accreditation and improve care delivery.
Cancer registry data is increasingly used to support real-world evidence (RWE) in oncology, making data quality, consistency, and standardization more critical than ever.
The Centers for Disease Control’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program push for structured data formats and real-time electronic case reporting to replace outdated, manual processes.
To keep pace with evolving regulatory requirements, organizations must adopt robust validation and auditing tools, ensure adherence to standardized coding frameworks like ICD-O-3, SNOMED, and AJCC staging, and build governance frameworks that prioritize data accuracy.
Cybersecurity must also be front and center. With rising threats of ransomware and data breaches, protecting patient information is non-negotiable. Cancer registries should implement best practice security measures, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), encryption protocols, and continuous monitoring while maintaining human oversight to verify data integrity and security.
Manual abstraction in cancer registries is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to human error. As the demand for high-quality, real-time oncology data increases, AI and NLP are transforming how data is extracted and structured. These technologies can comb through pathology reports and imaging records to identify cases, extract key clinical details from unstructured notes, and populate registry fields with greater speed and accuracy. That reduces the administrative burden while improving data quality.
CRStar by Health Catalyst™ offers registries AI-powered abstraction support that integrates directly with EHRs and other systems, enhancing workflows and reducing time to compliance.
By investing in these solutions, healthcare organizations can drive down abstraction costs, improve the overall quality and completeness of oncology data, and unlock data insights that support everything from accreditation to value-based care.
Precision medicine is no longer the future; it’s the present. With the rapid evolution of biomarker-driven therapies and individualized treatment pathways, cancer registries must evolve to capture granular molecular and genomic data.
Registries that can accurately track biomarkers, treatment markers, and long-term outcomes will be well-positioned to support clinical research, quality improvement, and drug development. AI and machine learning can also help identify patterns and predict outcomes, giving researchers and clinicians a new edge in targeting therapies.
To lead in this space, cancer registries should:
· Integrate biomarker and genomic fields into registry infrastructure.
· Use AI and machine learning to identify trends and support predictive modeling.
· Collaborate with clinical teams to ensure registry data aligns with real-world care.
· Expand longitudinal tracking to follow patients over time.
Cancer care is evolving fast, and cancer registries must keep up. No longer just compliance tools, registries are becoming vital engines for clinical excellence, research innovation, and strategic growth.
By modernizing operations, adopting modern technologies, and strengthening governance, health system leaders can ensure their cancer registries meet today’s regulatory demands while helping to shape the future of cancer care.
For healthcare executives, the message is clear: investing in cancer registry infrastructure today isn’t just about compliance—it’s about staying competitive in a data-driven future.
For a comprehensive list of new quality measures, codes, and revisions, please watch Looking Forward: The Evolution of Cancer Registry.
Would you like to learn more? Here are some articles we suggest:
Transforming Patient Outcomes: The Critical Role of the Cancer Registry
Blending Tech and Empathy: Cancer Registry Data, AI, and the Future of Cancer Care
Top Five Issues Troubling Healthcare Data Management – And How to Solve Them
Healthcare Cybersecurity in 2025--Time to Lead, Not Lag
