North Carolina (NC) Cancer Prevention and Control Branch (CPCB) provides programs and services under the leadership of the Chronic Disease and Injury Section of the NC Division of Public Health. The NC Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (NC BCCCP) began in 1992 and continues to provide services to underserved NC women. The goal of NC BCCCP is to reduce the morbidity and mortality of breast and cervical (BnC) cancers through effective screening strategies for eligible underserved NC women by providing (BnC) cancer screening services. Over the past 5 years, NC BCCCP has served 63,117 women from all 100 NC counties. The program has provided 51,596 mammograms and 16,929 Pap smears to program participants during the same period. NC BCCCP staff has supported local providers through capacity building with trainings, routine technical assistance, and in person monitoring visits to maintain the quality of services delivered to program participants and to ensure program deliverables are met. Between 2015 and 2020, 684 breast cancers and 312 cervical cancers were detected through our program. Before 2020, NC state law restricted women who received all services leading to a diagnosis at a non-BCCCP provider site remain ineligible for Breast and Cervical Cancer Medicaid (BCCM) to cover their treatment costs. As of October 1, 2020, the NC Division of Health Benefits changed the BCCM provider definition and now allows women who are diagnosed by a non-BCCCP provider, and who meet all other NC BCCCP eligibility criteria, be eligible to apply for BCCM. NC Comprehensive Cancer Control (CCCP) is a program within CPCB. Through the NC State Comprehensive Cancer Control 2020-2025 Plan, we work to ensure a comprehensive and collaborative approach to address the state’s cancer burden. Currently, through partnerships, CCCP promotes the cancer continuum of care and enhance cancer survivors' quality of life and reach underserved populations who have inc
reased cancer risk due to health disparities. CCCP, through a multifaceted approach, use programmatic and partner initiatives to expand the cancer control and prevention efforts that address the Cancer Plan, NC priority cancers and CDC’s priority areas. The program focuses on expanding partnerships with regional Community Cancer Networks to improve communication and resource sharing between organizations to facilitate community-clinical linkages, advance community engagement through community outreach sponsorships to increase community demand for cancer screening services. The North Carolina Central Cancer Registry (NC CCR) is a statewide, population-based cancer registry. On average, 80,000 cancer diagnoses are reported electronically from 121 hospitals, 200 physician offices and 40 pathology labs each year. The CCR has consistently exceeded NPCR’s National Data Quality and Advanced National Data Quality standards for reporting, and received awards of Registry of Distinction, Registry of Excellence and U.S. Cancer Statistics, and Registry for Surveillance and Gold Certification for 16 years from NAACCR for Timely, Complete and High-quality data. CCR will continue to identify and onboard additional pathology labs and physician offices to increase the flow of electronic data by Implementing Data Modernization and utilization of Cloud infrastructure to improve efficiency. Cancer data will be linked with COVID-19 and the Immunization Registry data to study the impact on delivery of care. CCR continues to have a robust education and training program to keep up with the changes in coding requirements, educate data reporters and staff to ensure data reported is of high quality. CCR will continue to produce reports on priority and high-risk populations by to address racial disparities in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Through internal and external partners, CCR will support evidence-based interventions to reduce the overall burden of cancer and achieve health equity in
NC.
