The Cancer Registry of Norway celebrates

2022 is a real anniversary year for the Cancer Registry. This year it is 70 years since the first employees threw themselves into the great and important job of registering all cancer cases in Norway – work that would provide the basis for health surveillance, statistics and research. Not only that, but the Mammography Programme celebrated its 25th anniversary in June and the Janus Bank turns 50.

Double selection

When the Cancer Registry of Norway turned 50, we published a special issue in the journal Norwegian Epidemiology , and the 60th anniversary was celebrated with a professional celebration. For the 70th anniversary, we turn on the big drum and do both! We have both a special issue in Norwegian Epidemiology, and we will mark the 70th anniversary with a seminar for the Cancer Registry's employees and some selected guests.

Ann Helen Seglem, Tom Kristian Grimsrud and Siri Larønningen make up the guest editorial staff for the special issue. They have been working since April 2021 to put together a selection of articles that reflect both the history of the Cancer Registry, the wide range of ongoing activities and visions for the future.

Demanding work

" It has been an interesting and intense work," says Siri Larønningen. Suggesting relevant topic areas and finding authors is one thing, but we must also follow up the authors and get the articles in time, read through and give feedback on all the articles, and put in place peer reviewers for those of the articles that need it. In addition, there are various administrative tasks, in all a large and demanding job. However, we are proud of the result, and believe we have managed to achieve a good mix of articles that show the diversity of the Cancer Registry.

Tom Kristian Grimsrud particularly highlights the motivating and engaging aspect of working with so many skilled and committed professionals, both across departments internally and with external partners. The breadth of the articles is wide – from personal memories and reflections to more scholarly articles about for example, choice of method.

" We in the guest editorial team have also learned a lot from reading the contributions of all the authors," says Ann Helen Seglem. Even though all of us in the guest editorial office have worked at the Cancer Registry of Norway for a long time (20, 28 and 18 years respectively), there is so much going on all the time that it is impossible to keep track of everything. We hope there are more people than us who find both joy and benefit in reading the articles in this anniversary issue.