• Introduction
• Facts & Figures
• Training

The Cancer Surveillance Program of Orange County (CSPOC) was established by the University of California Irvine in 1983 to provide a focus for scientists, clinicians, and members of the health-care community to promote cancer prevention and control in the County. Originally, many hospitals voluntarily participated in CSPOC's data collection effort. Shortly after the Orange County Board of Supervisors declared cancer a reportable disease within the County, legislation at the State level in 1985 made cancer a reportable disease throughout the state and designated CSPOC as the model regional registry for the system. CSPOC and the San Diego/Imperial Organization for Cancer Control (SANDIOCC) were designated regions of the California Cancer Reporting System resulting from that legislation. To implement the reporting laws the California Department of Health Services, Cancer Surveillance Section, has divided the state into 10 regions for purposes of cancer reporting. Each region has a regional registry which collects data and passes it on to the central, state registry. The regional registry improves the efficiency of data collection, but more importantly can better respond to local needs than can the state registry. CSPOC is the model regional registry for the system. Since 1992, the SANDIOCC program has been administered by the Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine at the University of California Irvine.

The data set maintained by CSPOC/SANDIOCC on cancer cases is comprised of items required by the State Department of Public Health, augmented by those recommended by the American College of Surgeons, the SEER program of the National Cancer Institute, and interest at the regional level. Operation of the Surveillance Program is highly automated, and data processing routinely includes thorough and comprehensive data edits. Quality-control measures are carried out at all phases of data collection, from case finding procedures through re-abstracting of cases and consolidation of separate reports on the same tumor in the same patient.

As part of the California-wide cancer reporting system, CSPOC/ SANDIOCC receives information on all cancers diagnosed among residents of the region at any facility in California. Incidence data are periodically checked against State mortality files conditioned on cancer as the cause of death. In addition, periodic case finding audits are performed at every cancer-reporting region in the state. Thus, case reporting to CSPOC/SANDIOCC is satisfyingly complete.

Among the main objectives of CSPOC and SANDIOCC are:

• Obtain accurate data on cancer incidence and survival
• Identify areas of need for cancer control
• Evaluate methods of cancer control
• Identify groups in the population at high cancer risk on the basis of factors such as: occupational/environmental exposures, geographic locus, lifestyle patterns
• Identify areas where etiologic associations should be tested
• Provide information in support of education programs, especially in high-risk groups
• Evaluate effectiveness of diagnostic and treatment modalities using prognosis and survival data
• Determine priorities for cancer prevention and control based on cancer incidence, distribution, and potential exposures to environmental carcinogens

CSPOC/SANDIOCC is administered by the Epidemiology Department, University of California, Irvine. The Director for CSPOC / SANDIOCC is Ms Deborah Bringman, MPH. The Principal Investigator of the SEER subcontract is Dr. Wendy R. Brewster. Necessary and appropriate consultation on scientific matters is available from a wide variety of nationally know experts, including Professors Hoda Anton-Culver, B Dwight Culver, and Sidney L Saltzstein, as well as the Center for Cancer Genetics Research and Prevention Advisory Board.

Experts in the fields of Epidemiology, cancer biology, demography, and biostatistics who are interested in detection, prevention, and treatment of cancer enthusiastically give support to the Cancer Surveillance Program.