Cancer Registry

Rapid City Regional Hospital’s Cancer Registry collects information about all cancer patients diagnosed and/or treated at Rapid City Regional Hospital and the Cancer Care Institute. Registries are maintained for lifetime patient follow-up, education, and research. The cancer registrar ensures that the information obtained is complete and accurate. The registry serves as an automatic reminder to physicians and patients to schedule regular examinations to obtain accurate follow-up on the effects of treatment.

The cancer registry maintains strict confidentiality regarding this information. Individual patients are never identified in any of the published reports. The Cancer Registry publishes an annual report summarizing the registry statistics.

The type of date collected includes:

• Age, sex, race or ethnicity, and place of residence
• Medical history: date cancer found, prior treatment, and abnormal physical findings
• Diagnosis: type of cancer and extent of disease
• Cancer therapy: surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy

The information helps us to:

• Encourage routine follow-up examinations for early detection of recurring cancers
• Detect changes in cancer rates to plan for future needs
• Develop and promote educational programs for health care professionals, patients, and the public
• Evaluate the success of treatment, both by length of survival and quality of life
• Provide a valuable resource for researchers studying the causes of cancer, diagnostic tests, and effects of treatment
• Identify the types of cancer that occur in a particular geographic region