According to the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA), the purpose of a cancer registrar is to ''capture a complete summary of the history, diagnosis, treatment, and disease status for every cancer patient. Registrar's work leads to better information that is used in the management of cancer, and ultimately its cure.'' Thus, in this role, you will be mainly working in a cancer treatment facility, be it a hospital or others, and tasked with maintaining data pertaining to cancer patients.
Some of the duties and responsibilities that you will be performing in this capacity include maintaining the database of cancer patients and all their details, be it personal or relating to their treatment. You will also ensure compliance with standards, run customized reports, track patient survival data, inform community needs assessment, and ensure data completeness.
Essential skills required to successfully complete these responsibilities are computer proficiency, communication, interpersonal, confidentiality, and organizational skills. Most individuals working in this field typically have an associate's degree from an accredited college. Moreover, certificate programs are also available as an alternative.
The NCRA offers a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) credential. Individuals must also meet the education and prerequisites to sit for a 250 question, multiple-choice exam. However, once qualified, the monetary compensation is generous. The average hourly pay for this position is $22.22, which amounts to over $46,000 annually. This career is also expected to grow in the near future.
How to Become a Cancer Registrar
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cancer registrar. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.73 an hour? That's $36,884 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 23,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Cancer Registrar Do
There are certain skills that many cancer registrars have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, detail oriented and technical skills.
How To Become a Cancer Registrar
If you're interested in becoming a cancer registrar, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 39.9% of cancer registrars have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.8% of cancer registrars have master's degrees. Even though some cancer registrars have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a cancer registrar. When we researched the most common majors for a cancer registrar, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on cancer registrar resumes include diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a cancer registrar. In fact, many cancer registrar jobs require experience in a role such as medical transcriptionist. Meanwhile, many cancer registrars also have previous career experience in roles such as medical coder or internship.
Cancer Registrar Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a cancer registrar can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as medical coder, progress to a title such as office manager and then eventually end up with the title practice manager.
Average Salary for a Cancer Registrar
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Cancer Registrars
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. New York University
New York, NY • Private
4. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
5. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Private
6. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
7. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
8. George Washington University, The
Washington, DC • Private
9. SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Utica, NY • Private
10. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Cancer Registrar
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.2% of cancer registrars listed medical records on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and detail oriented are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Cancer Registrar Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Cancer Registrar templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Cancer Registrar resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Cancer Registrar Demographics
Cancer Registrar Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among cancer registrars, 92.2% of them are women, while 7.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among cancer registrars is White, which makes up 65.0% of all cancer registrars.
- The most common foreign language among cancer registrars is German at 50.0%.
Online Courses For Cancer Registrar That You May Like
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How Do Cancer Registrar Rate Their Jobs?
Top Cancer Registrar Employers
Most Common Employers For Cancer Registrar
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanford Health | $77,169 | $37.10 | 3 |
| 2 | Independent Contractor | $76,846 | $36.95 | 3 |
| 3 | UC Health | $68,457 | $32.91 | 3 |
| 4 | Karmanos Cancer Institute | $66,836 | $32.13 | 6 |
| 5 | Columbus Regional Health | $57,965 | $27.87 | 3 |
| 6 | Eisenhower Medical Center | $57,796 | $27.79 | 2 |
| 7 | CHRISTUS Health | $52,539 | $25.26 | 2 |
| 8 | St. Peter's Health | $51,396 | $24.71 | 3 |
| 9 | Oregon Health & Science University | $51,222 | $24.63 | 2 |
| 10 | King's Daughters Medical Center | $50,008 | $24.04 | 3 |