Martha Linet and Annelie Landgren Receive Constance L. Percy Award for Contribution to Virtual Pooled Registry Cancer Linkage System
In June 2020, Martha Linet, M.D., M.P.H., scientist emerita, DCEG, and Annelie Landgren, M.P.H., P.M.P., formerly of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch, received the Constance L. Percy Award for Distinguished Service from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) in recognition of their work on the Virtual Pooled Registry Cancer Linkage System (VPR-CLS), a secure online service designed to streamline and facilitate the use of cancer registry data across the United States in minimal risk linkage studies.
In the early stages of this project, Dr. Linet, then principal investigator of the U.S. Radiologic Technologists (USRT) study, volunteered to link USRT data with 45 registries as part of the VPR-CLS feasibility testing, resulting in 24,235 matched cases. The linkage indicated potential for notably increasing cancer case ascertainment. Ms. Landgren then successfully led efforts to acquire data from 43 of the 45 registries. Her experience provided an invaluable source of detailed information on the application process, requirements for data release, institutional review board and data use agreement requirements, and continuing review process, as well as the time and cost associated with such activities, all of which contributed to development of a more comprehensive and user-friendly tool.
Danping Liu, Ph.D., tenure-track investigator in the Biostatistics Branch, compared questionnaire-based self-report of cancer incidence with cancer registry incidence reports that confirmed the value of linking with U.S. cancer registries to ascertain cancer incidence comprehensively, thereby lending support for creation of the VPR-CLS.
Dr. Linet and Ms. Landgren made considerable contributions to the feasibility testing of VPR-CLS concepts and provided thoughtful input that led to significant enhancements to the system. NAACCR is coordinating development of the VPR-CLS with funding from the National Cancer Institute.
The Constance L. Percy Award for Distinguished Service has been established to recognize individuals who contributed exceptional volunteer service to NAACCR during the past 12 months, or sustained, current, and long-term contributions to the organization.