Now Available! CiNA Statistics Update

NAACCR is pleased to announce that all CiNA data products have been updated with data from the 2024 Call for Data.

CiNA Data Products

CiNA*Explorer, our on-line query system, focuses on the most recent five years of data and was updated in June. For a quick overview of how to use the system, please refer to last year’s CiNA statistics NAACCR Narrative Update. New in CiNA*Explorer this year, we have added long-term year trends and delay adjusted rates. It is critical to use the delay rates when producing trends to ensure the most recent years are most accurately defined. For registries that would like to do their own trend analysis, they can request their registry data with the delay factors via DaRT, using the Registry Specific Dataset request button (which is visible once a NAACCR member logs in to the system). This is the same process used if they want to conduct survival or prevalence analysis using our CiNA standardized dataset. NAACCR Maps was updated in mid-July with the most recent five years of data.

The CiNA Public Use Dataset was also updated in June, and user access to the older file was removed. Due to the limits in availability of the denominator data, there are two versions available again this year: 2010-2022 with 20 age groups (the standard Public Use Dataset) and the 1995-2022 with 19 age groups (the historic Public Use Dataset). Public Use Dataset requests are approved and users have access generally within 24 hours. We have made some back-end improvements to DaRT and are moving the research data requests through the approval system more quickly. We do have a number of outstanding data requests in the process of database creation, and we anticipate getting through the current list sometime in August. There are changes in SEER*Stat that will require users to change passwords, etc. That information comes directly from the fine folks behind SEER*Stat and are a necessary update to ensure that our data are protected and released in accordance with our data agreements with the registries.

Cautionary Tale: Stomach Cancer

When evaluating trends, it is critical to not only use the delay adjusted rates, but also to compare data from years in the most compatible way possible. There are a number of recodes available (stage, behavior, site) that assist with this. However, there are coding changes that may impact specific sites that are not standardly accounted for in the analysis. For instance, the largest observed increase in cancer among women is currently stomach cancer. However, this likely reflects changes in disease classification rather than a true change in the underlying burden of the disease.

In 2021, there was a change in the WHO classification of tumors impacting gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). GISTs are rare cancers commonly diagnosed in the stomach; and, historically, most GISTs were classified as nonmalignant. However, based on increased understanding of these unique tumors, the WHO classification now considers all GISTs to be malignant unless specifically stated otherwise by the pathologist. Because cases of stomach cancer are low, the addition of these GISTs increased rates, which is now echoed in the increasing AAPC for stomach cancers. To ensure trends are appropriately interpreted, it is critical to review any new or large changes in trends and to collaborate with Oncology Data Specialists (ODS) and other operations staff to understand how coding or other operational issues may be driving trends. For now, we can interpret the rising stomach cancer rates similarly to a screening effect. The rates are a better picture of cancer burden, but there is no underlying increase in risk.