The hospital-based registries in Ohio have gathered information for many years on persons diagnosed with cancer. While these have registries served critical roles in following the clinical course of cancer patients within their respective institutions, there was no way of determining the type of cancer diagnosed among local residents who were seen outside of their institutions, e.g., in another city, county, or state. A regional registry housed within the Northern Ohio Cancer Resource Center in Cleveland reports cancer cases for many Cleveland area hospitals. Failure to report cancer cases in such a manner is a misdemeanor under Ohio law. During 1998, over 55,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed among Ohio residents, and over 24,000 Ohioans will die from the disease.
Cancer is now the second leading cause of death in Ohio, second only to heart disease.
This is a critical first step in helping the Ohio Department of Health design ways to assist with the prevention and early detection of cancer for all Ohioans.