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Background: American Indian and Alaska Native cancer incidence data are limited by underreporting and misclassification. These populations also suffer from a history of research abuse., Objectives: The project's goal was to use community-based participatory research (CBPR) to assess the local burden of cancer in the American Indian communities in Wisconsin and assess the accuracy of Wisconsin American Indian cancer data., Methods: Thirteen organizations partnered to conduct a retrospective review of American Indian clinics cancer cases. A match of the clinic identified cases with Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System records was then conducted., Lessons Learned: Relationship building, mutual education, and local engagement in data interpretation were significant factors in this project achieving its objectives and laying a foundation for future research partnerships., Conclusions: This project demonstrates the successful application of CBPR in a complex multisite project with multiple partners using collective resources to address cancer health disparities.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to improve the measurement of cancer incidence among American Indians in Wisconsin and compare incidence rates with state and national incidence rates., Methods: The Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System (WCRS) entered into a data linkage project with CDC and the Indian Health Service (IHS) to improve classification of American Indian cancer cases in Wisconsin. WCRS data were linked to IHS patient registration files to identify American Indian cases that were misclassified as a non-Indian race for the years 1998-2002. American Indian age-adjusted rates and rate ratios for major cancer sites were compared before and after the linkage, and with statewide and national rates., Results: The age-adjusted incidence rate for all cancer among American Indians increased from the pre-linkage rate of 386.3 per 100,000 to the post-linkage rate of 471.7 per 100,000, a statistically significant increase. The post-linkage rate was over twice the comparable Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) national rate among American Indians at 233.6 per 100,000. Post-linkage American Indian incidence rates for male colorectal and female lung cancers were higher than those for the state average., Conclusions: In contrast to earlier data, the linkage results show that American Indians had similar cancer incidence compared to the general population in Wisconsin, and over twice as high as national SEER American Indian rates. Post-linkage rates resulted in more accurate site-specific and geographically focused cancer incidence rates to help target the national and state priorities of addressing disparities among American Indians.

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine whether bladder cancer (BC) screening in healthy men could lead to earlier detection and reduced BC mortality compared with unscreened men and to determine long-term outcomes of a geographically defined, unscreened population with newly diagnosed BC., Methods: In 1987 and from 1998 to 1992, 1575 men ages 50 years and older who were solicited from well patient rosters in clinics in and around Madison, Wisconsin, tested their urine repetitively with a chemical reagent strip for hemoglobin. Participants who had positive test results underwent standard urologic evaluation. BC grades and stages and the outcomes of men with BC detected by screening were compared with the grades, stages, and outcomes of 87% of men ages 50 years and older with newly diagnosed BC who were reported to the Wisconsin Tumor Registry in 1988 (n = 509 men)., Results: Two hundred fifty-eight screening participants (16.4%) were evaluated for hematuria, and 21 participants (8.1%) were diagnosed with BC. Proportions of low-grade (Grade 1 and 2) superficial (Stage Ta and T1) versus high-grade (Grade 3) superficial or invasive (Stage > or = T2) cancers in screened men (52.4% vs. 47.7%) and in men from the tumor registry (60.3% vs. 39.7%) were similar (P = .50). The proportion of high-grade superficial or invasive BCs that were invasive were lower in screened men (10%) than in unscreened men (60%; P = .002). At 14 years of follow-up, no men with screen-detected BC had died of BC, whereas 20.4% of men with unscreened BC had died of BC (P = .02)., Conclusions: Screening effected the early detection of BC and may reduce mortality from BC compared with BC that is diagnosed at standard clinical presentation., ((c) 2006 American Cancer Society.)

Childhood chronic diseases, especially cancer, are of growing concern. Research has focused on 2 developmental periods, prenatal and postnatal. While it is hypothesized that chemical contaminants in the physical environment may play a role in the development and exacerbation of many chronic diseases, the role of environmental exposures in the etiology of these conditions remains uncertain. This can be somewhat attributed to the fact that it is very difficult to efficiently link chronic health effects with environmental exposures that are likely to have occurred temporally and spatially distant from diagnosis. This study explored the utility of linking childhood cancer cases with their birth certificate data as a method for increasing the number of geo-referenced data points available for linking health effect data with environmental monitoring data. This would begin to quantify the transiency of 1 subset of the population, and provide a basis for characterizing and estimating potentials for exposure to numerous environmental contaminants during prenatal and postnatal periods. A total of 441 unduplicated cancer diagnosis records of children who were both born and diagnosed with cancer in Wisconsin between 1995 and 2002 were linked with birth records to explore the variability between address at birth and diagnosis. The majority of records were matched to a birth record file (81.0%). Of these matched records, 86% moved <1 mile from birth to time of diagnosis. The results suggest that administrative and public health surveillance data can be used to quantify transiency. Data from the sample tested indicate that during the given time period children do not move far from their birth homes, suggesting minimal changes in exposure potential related to residence location from birth to diagnosis. This background is useful for future epidemiological investigations linking environmental factors with chronic health effects.

In this article we describe the development of an information system for environmental childhood cancer surveillance. The Wisconsin Cancer Registry annually receives more than 25,000 incident case reports. Approximately 269 cases per year involve children. Over time, there has been considerable community interest in understanding the role the environment plays as a cause of these cancer cases. Wisconsin's Public Health Information Network (WI-PHIN) is a robust web portal integrating both Health Alert Network and National Electronic Disease Surveillance System components. WI-PHIN is the information technology platform for all public health surveillance programs. Functions include the secure, automated exchange of cancer case data between public health-based and hospital-based cancer registrars; web-based supplemental data entry for environmental exposure confirmation and hypothesis testing; automated data analysis, visualization, and exposure-outcome record linkage; directories of public health and clinical personnel for role-based access control of sensitive surveillance information; public health information dissemination and alerting; and information technology security and critical infrastructure protection. For hypothesis generation, cancer case data are sent electronically to WI-PHIN and populate the integrated data repository. Environmental data are linked and the exposure-disease relationships are explored using statistical tools for ecologic exposure risk assessment. For hypothesis testing, case-control interviews collect exposure histories, including parental employment and residential histories. This information technology approach can thus serve as the basis for building a comprehensive system to assess environmental cancer etiology.

Objective: To explore trends in malignant melanoma incidence and mortality in Wisconsin from 1979 to 1997, by age, gender and time period. Comparisons are also made to US trends over this period., Data: Incidence data for Wisconsin were provided by the Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System Bureau of Health Information, within the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, while US data were extracted using SEER*Stat 3.0. Mortality data for both Wisconsin and the US were compiled using CDC WONDER., Results: Wisconsin malignant melanoma incidence rates rose 25% from 1979 to 1998, compared to a US increase of 132%. For mortality rates, however, both Wisconsin (22%) and the US (15%) exhibited only modest increases. Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, the largest increases in both incidence and mortality (over 70%) occurred among males over age 65. In contrast, declines of 30% to 40% were found for males age 0-34. Patterns were less consistent among females., Conclusions: Since the mid-1980s, malignant melanoma incidence in Wisconsin appears to have increased sharply among males and females over age 65, with a corresponding rise in mortality among males in this age group. These trends should be a source of concern for clinicians and policy makers alike. Because current evidence on the effectiveness of early treatment is inconclusive, it is especially important to take preventive measures now--such as educational and community-based interventions--to reduce future incidence.