Can cancer clusters be identified through the FCDS registry?
• Yes, the FCDS data are sufficient to identify a cancer ‘cluster.’ However, disease clusters are very difficult to detect and often times, once investigated, what appeared to be a ‘cluster’ of cancer is not. There are many reasons for this such as miss-classification of the cancer and the population at risk (as discussed below), the length of residence in the area and possibly the most difficult of all, the cause and effect of cancer. Most cancers do not have a clear cause (etiology). The DOH relies on a variety of sources to report clusters of disease. People often detect outbreaks more quickly than the data can. For example, for the majority of our communicable diseases we rely on the public or health care providers to report outbreaks, and we estimate about 75% of our food borne outbreaks are detected that way.
