Cancer registration: its uses in research, and confidentiality in the EC.

Abstract

Accepted for publication June 1993 Cancer registration in England and Wales was begun in 1929 by the Radium Commission. The work was transferred to the General Register Office in 1947 and thence to its successor, the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS). National coverage, though not 100% registration, was achieved in 1962. Meanwhile a parallel system was established in Scotland, cover ing the whole country by 1959. The National Cancer Registry in England and Wales is the largest population-based registry in the world, containing over five million case records; though it is inevitable that some cancers will escape registration, studies of selected groups indicate a high degree of completeness of ascertainment.1 2 In December 1992 a meeting was organised in Oxford by the Society for Social Medicine (UK) in association with the UK Association of Cancer Registries and the Cancer Surveillance Group to discuss current and forthcoming developments in the cancer registration system and uses of the data in research. Most of the topics discussed below were covered in the presentations and discussion at that meeting.