New Federal Rules Force Cancer Registries to Drop Transgender Patient Data

KFF Health News reported in November and December 2025 that, starting in 2026, U.S. cancer registries receiving federal funding through the National Cancer Institute and CDC will be required to classify patients' sex strictly as male, female, or "not stated/unknown," eliminating categories that had allowed for recording gender identity distinct from sex assigned at birth. Because nearly all state and territorial registries rely on federal funding, the change affects cancer data collection nationwide.

LGBTQ+ health advocates and researchers say the rule effectively erases transgender patients from public health datasets used to study cancer incidence, treatment outcomes, and disparities. Population-level data on cancer in transgender people was already limited, and researchers say recent progress in improving it is now at risk of being undone.

Federal officials framed the change as a matter of data uniformity and compliance with administration definitions of sex. Public health experts countered that removing accurate identity data distorts the picture of who is affected by cancer and undermines evidence-based policymaking rather than clarifying it.