NCDB: A Growing Valuable Resource

The NCDB was conceived in 1988 as a joint quality improvement project between the American College of Surgeons and American Cancer Society. Public access for researchers at CoC-accredited cancer programs to the dataset known as the Participant User File (PUF) was introduced in 2013. From that point forward, the number of published NCDB studies grew exponentially and quickly exceeded both SEER and SEER-Medicare based studies. In recent years, numerous NCDB studies have been cited in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guideline providing further evidence of the value and importance of the NCDB to cancer care in the United States.

Using Google Scholar, a search of “NCDB cancer citations” reveals nearly 8000 published scholarly articles since 1988. Clarivate Analytics’s Web of Science provides a useful tool to analyze the top cited NCBD studies. A citation report was created for the top papers including the total and average citations per year. Over the entire time period since 1988, the overall 10 most commonly cited NCDB studies based on highest average citations per year are listed as follows:

Hundahl SA, Fleming ID, Fremgen AM, Menck HR. A National Cancer Data Base report on 53,856 cases of thyroid carcinoma treated in the U.S., 1985-1995. Cancer. 1998 Dec 15;83(12):2638-48
Chang AE, Karnell LH, Menck HR. The National Cancer Data Base report on cutaneous and noncutaneous melanoma: a summary of 84,836 cases from the past decade. The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and the American Cancer Society. Cancer. 1998 Oct 15;83(8):1664-78.
Bleicher RJ, Ruth K, Sigurdson KR, Beck JR, Ross E, et al. Time to Surgery and Breast Cancer Survival in the United States. JAMA Oncology. 2016 Mar;2(3):330-9.
Hoffman HT, Porter K, Karnell LH, Cooper JS, Weber RS, et al. Laryngeal cancer in the United States: changes in demographics, patterns of care, and survival. Laryngoscope. 2006 Sep;116(9 Pt 2 Suppl 111):1-13.
Murphy CT, Galloway TJ, Handorf EA, Egleston BL, Wang LS, et al. Survival Impact of Increasing Time to Treatment Initiation for Patients With Head and Neck Cancer in the United States. J Clin Oncol. 2016 Jan 10;34(2):169-78.
Kane CJ, Mallin K, Ritchey J, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR. Renal cell cancer stage migration: analysis of the National Cancer Data Base. Cancer. 2008 Jul 1;113(1):78-83.
Gunderson LL, Jessup JM, Sargent DJ, Greene FL, Stewart AK. Revised TN categorization for colon cancer based on national survival outcomes data. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Jan 10;28(2):264-71.
Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Wayne JD, Ko CY, Bennett CL, Talamonti MS. Small bowel cancer in the United States: changes in epidemiology, treatment, and survival over the last 20 years. Ann Surg. 2009 Jan;249(1):63-71.
Chansky K, Detterbeck FC, Nicholson AG, Rusch VW, Vallieres E, et al. The IASLC Lung Cancer Staging Project: External Validation of the Revision of the TNM Stage Groupings in the Eighth Edition of the TNM Classification of Lung Cancer. J Thorac Oncol. 2017 Jul;12(7):1109-1121.
Swanson RS, Compton CC, Stewart AK, Bland KI. The prognosis of T3N0 colon cancer is dependent on the number of lymph nodes examined. Ann Surg Oncol. Jan-Feb 2003;10(1):65-71.

Peter C. Wu, MD FACS

Washington State CoC Chair and Associate Professor of Surgery

University of Washington, VA Puget Sound Health Care System

NCDB-Generated Literature on Cancer Disparities

As we mark the centennial celebration of the Commission on Cancer and one of its poster products, the National Cancer Database, the 10 most highly cited literature on disparities published using NCDB data are worthy of highlight.

Utilization of the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to Access Postmastectomy Breast Reconstruction

The treatment of breast cancer is a multidisciplinary effort. Breast surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists work to create a comprehensive cancer treatment plan specific for each patient.

The NCDB and Childhood Cancer

The National Cancer Database (NCDB) receives information from across the country and centers contribute their cancer patient information. While the majority of the NCDB comprises adults with cancer, the database also includes children that develop cancer.

NCDB-Generated Literature and the Staging of Cancer

The staging world and especially the TNM system of the American Joint Committee on Cancer, has utilized the robust data source of the National Cancer Database to create, improve, and refine clinical and pathological staging of cancer and to add prognostic and molecular prognostic factors to the anatomical taxonomy of the TNM system.

Birthday Reflections: NCDB as a Tool for Fighting Structural Racism

The National Cancer Database (NCDB) is a hospital-based cancer registry, collecting standardized data on diagnostic, staging, treatment (including time to treatment), and outcomes for more than 70 percent of newly diagnosed cancer patients in the United States, and includes patients residing in all states.