tailieunhanh - The role of cancer registries

For example, a decision must be taken on whether to include cases for which the most valid basis of diag- nosis is solely clinical. A decision should also be taken regarding cases registered on the basis of a death certificate only (DCO), for whom no information is available on the date of diagnosis of the cancer. The most usual practice is to omit these cases from the analysis, but if they repre- sent a large proportion of registrations, it may be better to present two survival analyses, one including DCO cases and another excluding them. In both cases, the proportion of DCO registrations should be stated in survival reports | Chapter 17 The role of cancer registries Aims of cancer registries The cancer registry is an organization for the systematic collection storage analysis interpretation and reporting of data on subjects with cancer. There are two main types of cancer registry hospital-based and populationbased cancer registries. Hospital-based cancer registries are concerned with the recording of information on the cancer patients seen in a particular hospital. The main purpose of such registries is to contribute to patient care by providing readily accessible information on the subjects with cancer the treatment they received and its result. The data are used mainly for administrative purposes and for reviewing clinical performance. Although these data may be used to a certain extent for epidemiological purposes see Section these registries cannot provide measures of the occurrence of cancer in a defined population because it is not possible to define their catchment populations that is the populations from which all the cases arise. Population-based cancer registries seek to collect data on all new cases of cancer occurring in a well defined population. Usually the population is that which is resident in a particular geographical region. As a result and in contrast to hospital-based registries the main objective of this type of cancer registry is to produce statistics on the occurrence of cancer in a defined population and to provide a framework for assessing and controlling the impact of cancer in the community. Thus the emphasis is on epidemiology and public health. The uses of population-based cancer registration data may be summarized as follows 1 They describe the extent and nature of the cancer burden in the community and assist in the establishment of public health priorities. 2 They may be used as a source of material for etiological studies. 3 They help in monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of cancer control activities. Some of these functions can be .