Cancer Registry

DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE INCIDENCE OF CANCER IN CAYMAN?  WE DO.

Perception of inequalities in care and cancer registries

Watch Interview with Sir Michael Richards – Department of Health, UK

Sir Michael Richards talks with ecancer at the 2012 NCRI meeting in Liverpool, UK about the use of cancer registry data. The importance and complexity of these databases stems from the large number of types of inequalities that can arise; for example age and race, and in terms of the different types of cancer. The large complexities this presents shows the need for larger global registries to house data for analysis.

WHY GICR IS SO IMPORTANT

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with an estimated 14.1 million new cases and 8.2 million deaths annually (Globocan, 2012). The developing world is bearing over half of this burden, but is the least equipped to cope with the situation. Having data to help us understand the burden is the first essential step for effective cancer control planning.

High-quality incidence and mortality data inform governments so that effective policies for cancer control can be developed, implemented and evaluated. Guided by reliable data, this results in the right interventions for saving lives and improving the conditions of cancer patients and their families. Currently, the existence of cancer registration is lacking in the developing world with large disparities in the percentage of population covered by population-based cancer registries (PBCR) between high-income and low- and middle-income countries.