Dr Heather O Dickinson My web page Department of Child Health University of Newcastle My web page Audit of cancer registrations notified by National Health Service Central Register in England & Wales
I work on the epidemiology of children’s cancer, mainly on cohort studies in relation to exposures around birth: Heather Dickinson population mixing infections father’s preconceptional irradiation
l Learning objectives - understand: importance of ascertainment of cases from multiple sources importance of diagnostic review age - cohort effects l Performance objectives - able to: use capture-recapture methods organise a diagnostic review
12 regional cancer registries National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) Cancer registration system in England & Wales
No. of cancers Year of diagnosis Notified by NHSCR Expected Cancers notified by NHSCR
l Accuracy of diagnoses Were site and type codes correct? l Completeness of ascertainment Did they tell us about ALL the people who got cancer? Objective For NHSCR cancer registrations, , to assess:
Accuracy of diagnostic codes from NHSCR
Identify hospital of diagnosis Request biopsy, pathology or post-mortem report Request clinical records Review cancer or death registration Material found and satisfactory? Hospital ID no. known? Clinical records obtained? Yes No Review complete
Pathology review of NHSCR cancer registrations
Diagnostic groups l we used 13 standard groups for children’s cancer Kramarova et al., 1996 l we added 3 groups for adult cancer We grouped the cancers into diagnostic groups:
Level of agreement between diagnostic codes of NHSCR and review
Reasons for disagreement
l age l how recently the original diagnosis was made Reasons for disagreement We were interested in whether the accuracy of diagnosis depended on:
Total no. in cohort Year , ,000 The Cumbrian birth cohort 0-14 yrs yrs over 25 yrs
over 25 Age (in years) at diagnosis % of cases NHSCR and review diagnoses in different groups p for heterogeneity = 0.03
Time period of diagnosis % of cases NHSCR and review diagnoses in different groups p for trend = 0.07
Completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR Did NHSCR tell us about all the people in our cohort who got cancer?
Completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR *N = No. of cancers not notified by NHSCR
Completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR l 720 cases notified by NHSCR 694 confirmed as malignant l 740 malignancies notified from all sources Ascertainment = 694/740 = 94%
% of cases missed Completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR p for heterogeneity = over 25 Age (in yrs) at diagnosis
% of cases missed p for trend = 0.83 Time period of diagnosis Completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR
Other cases? l Not notified by NHSCR AND l Not notified by any other source
Notified by NHSCR? YesNo NotifiedYes by other sources? No ? Cases not notified by NHSCR or other sources Over 25 years 86
Notified by NHSCR? YesNo NotifiedYes by other sources? No ? Cases not notified by NHSCR or other sources years 24
Notified by NHSCR? YesNo NotifiedYes 1750 by other sources? No ? Cases not notified by NHSCR or other sources years 86
Cancers missed by NHSCR Notified by other sources?TOTAL Age at diagnosis YESNO n (%) (10%) (7%) over (5%) ALL AGES (7%) (in years)
Summary: completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR l NHSCR definitely missed 46 (6%) out of 740 cases notified by all sources. l NHSCR probably missed more cases which were not notified to us by any source.
l NHSCR missed 10% of cases in the youngest age group. NHSCR probably missed at least 10% of cases in other age groups too. Summary: completeness of ascertainment by NHSCR
Conclusions l Ascertainment from multiple sources & l Diagnostic review are essential for epidemiological studies of cancer