European journal of cancer : official journal for European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [and] European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
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This paper describes the collection, standardisation and checking of cancer survival data included in the EUROCARE-4 database. Methods for estimating relative survival are also described. Incidence and vital status data on newly diagnosed European cancer cases were received from 93 cancer registries in 23 countries, covering 151,400,000 people (35% of the participating country population). ⋯ Of 5,753,934 malignant adult cases diagnosed in 1995-2002, 5.3% were second or later cancers, 2.7% were known from death certificates only and 0.4% were discovered at autopsy. The remaining 5,278,670 cases entered the survival analyses, 90% of these had microscopic confirmation and 1.3% were censored alive after less than five years' follow-up. These indicators suggest satisfactory data quality that has improved since EUROCARE-3.
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This study analyses survival in 40,392 children (age 0-14 years) and 30,187 adolescents/young adults (age 15-24 years) diagnosed with cancer between 1995 and 2002. The cases were from 83 European population-based cancer registries in 23 countries participating in EUROCARE-4. Five-year survival in countries and in regional groupings of countries was compared for all cancers combined and for major cancers. ⋯ Survival improved significantly over time for acute lymphoid leukaemia and primitive neuroectodermal tumours in children and for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in adolescents/young adults. Cancer survival in patients <25 years is poorly documented in Eastern European countries. Complete cancer registration should be a priority for these countries as an essential part of a policy for effective cancer control in Europe.