Cancer Research

The Georgia Cancer Registry has a strong track record of helping investigators carry out population-based cancer research studies. Our recruitment methods employ a rigorous, multi-step protocol designed to maximize response. Our team is proficient in all activities surrounding biospecimen acquisition, including patient consent. We are a leader in using novel methods to maximize the value of all data routinely collected in a population-based cancer registry and can facilitate linkage studies to harness the power of combined datasets. 

The Georgia Cancer Registry covers the entire state which includes over 11 million residents. The diversity of our population, including individuals living in a mix of urban and rural communities and varied sociodemographic backgrounds, enables researchers to explore how biological, clinical, and contextual factors interact to influence cancer outcomes.

Our team is ready to support your research needs. A listing of the types of studies we are currently supporting is provided below for your reference. Contact Dr. Ward at kward@emory.edu or 404-964-5796 when you are ready to partner with us in your work.

Sample of Studies

Identifying factors associated with prostate cancer progression and survival in African American men: The RESPOND Cohort - The goal of this project is to leverage the RESPOND recruitment infrastructure and research expertise to update comorbidities, lifestyle behaviors, experience of stress, access to care, and neighborhood environmental data, as well as to obtain information on prostate cancer oncologic outcomes including disease progression/recurrence (P/R) and mortality.

Family RESPOND: Defining the Genetic Basis of Prostate Cancer Risk in African American Families – The proposed study aims to define the genetic factors underlying familial prostate cancer and other hereditary cancers in African American families. To accomplish this, we will leverage RESPOND, a landmark study of 12,000 African American prostate cancer survivors identified through population-based registries from across the United States, including 6,500 with DNA and genetic information.

Genetic Testing, Treatment Use, and Mortality after Diagnosis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer - The purpose of the proposed research is to gain a better understanding of how genetic testing is deployed in a large representative cancer patient population, how test results are managed and the impact of test results on treatment use and cancer mortality.  Specific focus will be given to potential disparities in test use and results across sociodemographic and clinical subgroups. 

A Registry-Based Study of Patterns of Use of Targeted Therapies for Metastatic Cancers in Diverse Populations - One of the most important advances in cancer care in recent history is the rapid dissemination of targeted therapy (both molecularly targeted kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors) into the care of patients with metastatic cancer. The goals of this study are to identify groups of patients with metastatic cancers who are vulnerable to non-receipt of targeted therapies, to identify medical oncologists who are less likely to prescribe targeted therapies and to quantify and explain the influence of attending medical oncologist on variation in use of targeted therapies.

Risk stratified survivorship care pathways for early-onset colorectal cancer - The overall goal of the proposed study is to develop stratified survivorship care pathways for patients with early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC). The Georgia Cancer Registry (GCR) will participate in early-onset CRC patient identification, cancer recurrence identification, and survey recruitment activities with the hopes of identifying patterns of recurrence among a diverse, population-based sample of patients with early-onset CRC and characterizing surveillance intensity and survivorship care needs among these patients

Examining the Impact of Structural Racism on African American Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Mutational Signatures and Outcomes -  The proposed investigation aims to examine the impact of structural racism on African American non-small cell lung cancer mutational signatures and outcomes.  We aim to determine the extent to which exposure to structural racism over time is linked with differences in NSCLC tumor evolution by characterizing the types of mutations, the order of their acquisition, and the activity of mutational processes.

Personalized Cancer Support for Young Adults – Through an individually randomized controlled trial of AYA survivors with low-risk thyroid cancer, melanoma, and testicular cancer, this study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of a tailored post-treatment mobile optimized psychosocial support tool.

Refined Capture-Recapture Methods for Surveilling Cancer Recurrence - The goal of this study is to develop best statistical practices for estimating case totals by means of a novel C-R estimator that harnesses the power of the principled sampling effort behind the anchor stream while offering markedly enhanced precision. We propose to extend our approach to account for misclassification, which is induced in the case of our motivating studies when surveillance streams identify potential true recurrences in an error-prone manner.

Flexible NLP Toolkit for Automatic Curation of Outcomes for Breast Cancer Patients - The goal of this study is to build a flexible natural language processing (NLP) toolset that can be executed locally at the institution level and will curate the clinical and patient-centered outcomes of breast cancer patients by parsing longitudinally acquired clinic notes, radiology and pathology reports.

Improving Our Understanding of Breast Cancer Mortality Disparities through Recurrence: A Multi-Level Approach among Women in Georgia - The proposed study will advance our understanding of multi-level drivers of demographic disparities in recurrence and breast cancer-specific mortality, and facilitate prioritization of intervention targets.

Risk-stratified care for thyroid cancer survivors - The goal of this study is to develop risk-stratified surveillance care pathways that will allow select thyroid cancer patients to be informed of their cancer cure while allowing for more focus on intermediate to high-risk thyroid cancer patients, who need more physician time and resources.

Improving measurement of cancer registry completeness - The goal of this study is to develop new methods to estimate cancer registry completeness that will address known shortcomings and improve the rigor, reproducibility, and transparency of the measurement of cancer registry completeness