The intent of the General Assembly is to require the establishment and maintenance of a cancer registry for the State. This responsibility is delegated to the Department of Health and Social Services, along with the authority to exercise certain powers to implement this requirement. To ensure an accurate and continuing source of data concerning cancer and certain specified tumors of a benign nature, the General Assembly by this chapter requires certain health care practitioners and all hospitals, clinical laboratories and cancer treatment centers within the State to make available to the Department of Health and Social Services information contained in the medical records of patients who have cancer or tumors of a benign nature. It is intended that the product of these efforts will be a central data bank of accurate, precise and current information regarding the subject diseases.