By Haley Kosik/WJEZ News

The Illinois State Cancer Registry received another North American Association of Central Cancer Registries gold certification.

The director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Nirav D. Shah announced yesterday of the state’s 17th consecutive year receiving the gold certification upholding honor.

Only those registries meeting the highest standards are awarded gold certification.

“Illinois State Cancer Registry data allow us to understand the cancer burden and trends in our state and to target our prevention and treatment efforts. I would like to thank and congratulate the cancer registrars from hospitals throughout the state as well as the Illinois State Cancer Registry staff for their contributions toward achieving gold certification,” said Shah.

The North American Association of Central Cancer Registries annually reviews all state cancer registries in North America for their performance in collecting complete, accurate and timely cancer data. No other state with as high a case load has achieved the gold standard registry designation for as many consecutive years.

In addition to the gold certification, the Illinois State Cancer Registry has recently been recognized for the same outstanding performance as a Registry of Excellence by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries.

The Illinois State Cancer Registry, maintained by the Illinois Department of Public Health, is the only source for population-based cancer incidence for the state.

The information collected by the registry is important for cancer surveillance and research efforts both statewide and nationally.

The registry provides information about population-based cancer incidence, cancer by site numbers, morbidity and mortality data and statistics broken down into cancer type, sex, race, age and geographical area.