TITLE 3: HUMAN RESOURCES
DIVISION 2: HEALTH
§ 2850. Short Title. This chapter shall be known as the "Cancer Registry Act of 2010." Source: PL 17-19 § 2(2840). Commission Comment: Public Law 17-19 (enacted on September 30, 2010) included severability and savings clause provisions and the following: Section 1. Findings and Purpose. The Legislature finds that a 2004 study, funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), suggests that cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and that the most prevalent cancers can be prevented with early detection and treatment. The Legislature finds that developing a population-based cancer registry in the CNMI will provide important data to enable public health professionals to understand and treat cancer more effectively. A cancer registry is a special database that contains information about cancer patients in a particular population or in a particular hospital. A registry contains many special reports called abstracts. An abstract is a summary of a cancer patient's medical record, but the information is collected in a standardized way, and is collected in the same way across the United States and U.S. Associated Pacific Islands (USAPI). All the information collected for the cancer registry is confidential. The University of Hawaii was awarded a cooperative agreement from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to develop a Regional Cancer Registry on behalf of the six USAPI jurisdictions including Guam and the CNMI. Upon the enactment of a CNMI Cancer Registry Act, the University of Hawaii and the Department of Public Health (DPH) will execute a memorandum of understanding whereby DPH will set up a Cancer Registry Office with basic office equipment and supplies. The University of Hawaii will provide one non-government FTE funded by the University of Hawaii to hire a cancer registrar/registry data specialist up to June 2012. The University of Hawaii will also provide the training necessary to develop and maintain a cancer registry. Therefore, the purpose of this act is to establish a population-based cancer registry in the Commonwealth.