The Kansas Cancer Registry (KCR) is the only population-based cancer incidence database in Kansas. KCR has been in existence since 1968. Frederick Holmes, M.D., was asked in 1968 by the Kansas State Department of Health and the University of Kansas Medical Center to create a registry of cancer patients in the State of Kansas. With the assistance of the Kansas Division of the American Cancer Society and the federal government, the registry was developed over the next five years. Since 1982, cancers have been reportable diseases in Kansas according to Kansas Statute 65-102.  This Regulation requires all cancers to be reported to the Kansas Cancer Registry by all hospital administrators.

In 1994, Sue-Min Lai, Ph.D., MS, MBA, became Director of the Kansas Cancer Registry and federal funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was secured to enhance the Kansas Cancer Registry. Under Dr. Lai’s direction, the Kansas Cancer Registry has successfully competed federal funding via grant mechanisms to maintain the registry operation. Accomplishments are briefly described below.  

• Kansas Law requiring cancer reporting (K.S.A. 65-1, 168 to 174) and associated regulations (K.A.R. 28-70-1 to 28-70-3) have been enacted and implemented since 1997. These rules and regulations have detailed information on when, how, and what information each type of health care provider should report to KCR.

• The Kansas Cancer Registry (KCR) is certified on an annual basis by the NAACCR and has been awarded by the NAACCR with gold standards of achievement in completeness, timeliness, and data quality of cancer reporting. KCR has registered at least 90% of the expected number of Kansans with cancers within 12 months of the close of the diagnosis year and over 95% completeness of reporting within 24 months of the close of the diagnosis year.

• The Kansas Cancer Registry which is the only population-based source of information on cancer incidence in Kansas, has published annual reports about cancer incidence (new cancer cases) and mortality for Kansans who have been diagnosed with cancers since 1995.

• Registry data have been used for cancer cluster investigations, setting Healthy Kansans 2000 and 2010 priorities, hospital strategic planning, clinical research, policy making, and inclusion in the United Statistics Cancer Statistics – 1999 Incidence, published in 2002.

KCR operation is governed by Kansas state laws and reviewed and certified annually by the Institutional Review Board of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as well as the University of Kansas Medical Center. Registry data that may identify individuals are not released in reports or any other form.