The completeness of the Swedish Cancer Register – a sample survey for year 1998

Figures & data

Table I.  Number of malignant cancer cases, according to ICD-10: C00-C96 except C77-C79, in the Swedish Cancer Register in 1998. Number of cancer cases in the Hospital Discharge Register in 1998 and the number of cancer cases that were not registered in the Swedish Cancer Register in 1958–1998.

	Reported to the Cancer Registry in 1998		Reported to the Hospital Discharge Registry in 1998	Reported to the Hospital Discharge Registry only
Site	Number of tumours	Number of persons	Number of persons	Number of persons	Ratio (%)^1
Head and neck	988	982	1 140	99	10.1
Digestive organs	8 715	8 579	9 979	863	10.1
Lung	2 997	2 982	3 470	329	11.0
Soft tissue	1 316	1 312	1 527	165	12.6
Skin	4 232	4 092	1 653	398	9.7
Breast	6 225	6 091	6 118	84	1.4
Female genital organs	2 936	2 909	3 354	100	3.4
Urology	9 996	9 865	8 207	509	5.2
Nervous system	1 410	1 407	1 376	195	13.9
Leukemia and lymphoma	3 171	3 157	3 884	534	16.9
Other sites	784	784	1 302	153	19.5
Total	42 770	42 160	42 010	3 429	8.1

¹Ratio in per cent of the number of persons with a tumour reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry.

Table II.  Number of persons diagnosed with a malignant tumour, according to ICD-10: C00-C96 except C77-C79, reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry in 1998 by age and sex. The ratio of persons reported to the Hospital Discharge Registry in 1998 but not to the Swedish Cancer Registry (n = 3 429), to the number of persons reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry in 1998, by site, age, and sex.

	Males				Females
	0-69		70 +		0-69		70 +
Site	N	Ratio (%)	N	Ratio (%)	N	Ratio (%)	N	Ratio (%)
Head and neck	380	7.1	293	8.9	161	13.7	148	16.2
Digestive organs	1 855	7.8	2 627	10.5	1 509	5.1	2 588	14.1
Lung	850	7.4	986	13.7	639	6.1	507	18.1
Soft tissue	328	13.7	169	23.7	493	9.3	322	10.6
Skin	870	7.9	1 384	7.9	731	9.3	1 107	13.6
Breast	12	25.0	16	31.3	4 023	1.1	2 040	1.6
Female genital organs	–		–		1 732	1.9	1 177	5.5
Urology	3 247	3.3	5 647	5.3	382	7.1	589	12.7
Nervous system	509	5.5	148	43.9	534	7.1	216	29.6
Leukemia and lymphoma	951	13.0	797	19.7	656	11.3	753	23.8
Other sites	136	8.8	155	38.7	183	8.2	310	21.3
Total	9 138	6.8	12 222	9.6	11 043	4.4	9 757	11.8

Table III.  The ratio of persons reported to the Hospital Discharge Registry in 1998, according to ICD-10: C00–C96 except C77–C79 but not to the Swedish Cancer Registry (n = 3 429), to the number of persons reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry in 1998, by site and hospital type.

Site	University hospital	County hospital	Local hospital, nursing home etc	Total
Head and neck	17.3	8.3	9.4	10.1
Digestive organs	8.9	10.0	11.6	10.1
Lung	28.8	9.1	8.9	11.0
Soft tissue	22.1	13.9	10.3	12.6
Skin	4.6	11.7	10.5	9.7
Breast	1.1	1.5	1.5	1.4
Female genital organs	2.3	4.0	3.5	3.4
Urology	5.1	6.0	4.5	5.2
Nervous system	48.2	^(1)121.1	4.5	13.9
Leukemia and lymphoma	18.7	18.9	14.1	16.9
Other sites	20.8	18.2	19.9	19.5
Total	8.0	8.7	7.8	8.1

¹There were 86 tumours unreported and 71 reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry.

Table IV.  Basis of diagnosis for the 93 malignant cancer cases that should have been reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry in 1998, and the reasons way the remaining 109 cases should not have been reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry in 1998.

	Number of cases	%
Cases that should have been reported to the Swedish Cancer Registry	93	46.0
Basis of diagnosis
Clinical diagnosis only	12	5.9
Radiological investigation	44	21.8
Histological diagnosis	18	8.9
Autopsy with histological examination	1	0.5
Cytological diagnosis	10	5.0
Gross examination at surgery	5	2.5
Autopsy without histological examination	3	1.5
Cases that should not have been reported to the Swedish Cancer
Registry	109	54.0
Benign tumour	8	4.0
Not cancer	39	19.3
Basal cell carcinoma	23	11.4
Not resident in Sweden in 1998	5	2.5
Cancer – but should not be included in 1998	33	16.3
Benign tumour – but should not be included in 1998	1	0.5
Total	202	100.0

Table V.  Site, sex, and age distribution for the 202 patients in the reviewed sample and the number deceased in 1998.

				Age at discharge				Deceased in 1998
	Reviewed records		Males	0–69		70 +		all causes		of cancer
Site	N	%	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Head and neck	6	3.0	66.7	3	50.0	3	50.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Digestive organs	51	25.2	43.1	16	31.4	35	68.6	31	60.8	24	47.1
Lung	19	9.4	47.4	5	26.3	14	73.7	10	52.6	8	42.1
Soft tissue	10	5.0	90.0	3	30.0	7	70.0	2	20.0	1	10.0
Skin	23	11.4	43.5	7	30.4	16	69.6	0	0.0	0	0.0
Breast	5	2.5	40.0	3	60.0	2	40.0	0	0.0	0	0.0
Female genital organs	6	3.0	0.0	1	16.7	5	83.3	2	33.3	2	33.3
Urology	30	14.9	86.7	8	26.7	22	73.3	12	40.0	3	10.0
Nervous system	12	5.9	50.0	5	41.7	7	58.3	7	58.3	6	50.0
Leukemia and lymphoma	31	15.3	54.8	9	29.0	22	71.0	8	25.8	6	19.4
Other sites	9	4.5	55.6	0	0.0	9	100.0	7	77.8	4	44.4
Total	202	100.0	54.5	60	29.7	142	70.3	79	39.1	54	26.7