The Source for Navy News
Tumor Registry Helps Cancer Patients Worldwide
Story Number: NNS030707-12
Release Date: 7/7/2003 2:36:00 PM
By Jenna Shelby, U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka Public Affairs
YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) -- It’s the kind of registration no one wants, but tumor registration at U.S. Naval Hospital (USNH) Yokosuka, Japan, is a program that helps doctors assist their patients in battling malignant cancers.
Using the tumor registry, health care professionals go through a national database, called Acture. Doctors in the United States and at other military bases can now compare how patients with the same kind of cancer react to different treatments.
Why they do this is rather quite simple, explains pathologist Lt. Cmdr. Brian Schnell. “We’re still learning about cancer, and the best way to learn is to watch how people react (to treatment),” he said.
According to Schnell, there are more than 40 malignant diagnoses of tumors yearly at USNH Yokosuka, so it’s good to keep track of improvements and relapses.
This system helps compare cancers because every tumor behaves differently depending on size and location. Doctors use the program to get statistics on which medicines work and how people, as well as tumors, respond to those medicines.
“A diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Disease used to be a death sentence,” explains Schnell. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a lymphatic disease that affects the immune system and kills 1,300 Americans each year. ”Now it is a very treatable disease."
People typically don’t want to have to get registered for this kind of thing, but if they get a tumor they might want to know how this system works. After someone is diagnosed with a malignant tumor, the lab is notified and starts gathering the patient’s records.
“All information on patients is collected using pharmacy, radiology, inpatient and outpatient records,” explains Kanako Shino, who is specially trained to use this system.
After reviewing the records, Shino goes through a process of answering questions to identify the type of tumor. This process can take some time - usually six months for a patient to get diagnosed and get all the paper work and records to the lab to get analyzed.
“It’s a lot of work,” Shino confesses, ”but it’s a very good system and it really helps.”
At the lab, they have to be sure to enter information very carefully, because data entered could be reviewed by many other hospitals and researchers.
“When we enter information into Acture then people in the United States can see it too. Like if we forward a patient to Hawaii, they can look at Acture and find out what’s going on with the patient.”
This program is another way military medicine is improving the quality of health care and helping its patients.
For related news, visit the U. S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/nhyoko.
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