Trends of cervical cancer in Greenland: A 60-year overview

Figures & data

Table I. Reviewed publications on the incidence of cervical cancer in Greenland identified by a systematic search in PubMed.

Authors and year	Time period	Sources of data on cervical cancer	Definition of a Greenlander (cases)	Definition of population (numerator)	Description of data quality by authors	Diagnosis
a) Nielsen 1986 [4]	1950–1974	A review of all records in Greenlandic hospitals, records on patients sent to Denmark for treatment, records from Danish hospitals, tissue sent to Denmark, deceased persons lists, death certificates and the Danish Cancer Registry	Two parents born in Greenland, or Greenlandic maternal of paternal decent verified from church books, or identified as Greenlandic through pictures, names and information from relatives or hospital personnel	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland	“Since 1954... many aspects of the Greenlandic health service came close to Danish standards around 1954. Registration of disease in terms of completeness and accuracy was greatly improved”.^a	Only 2 of 101 not histologically confirmed Diagnosis: ICD-O:180/ ICD-7:171
b) Prener et al. 1991 [23]	1953–1985^b	From 1975: Danish Cancer Registry supplemented by pathology reports and death certificates	Born in Greenland and living in Greenland at the time of diagnosis	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland	“The Greenlandic health system was in a phase of development from 1950–1955”.^c “With introduction of more specialized medical services from 1954, the quality of the health service came close to that of for example Denmark, and registration of diseases and mortality was also greatly improved”.^d	ICD-O codes converted to modified version of ICD-7 (171)
c) Melbye et al. 1984 [17]	1960–1981^b	From 1975: notifications to the Danish Cancer Registry, and pathology reports [92]	From 1975: not further defined [92]	From 1975: not further defined [92]	–	From 1975: not further defined [92]
d) Kjaer et al. 1996 [13]	1969–1988^b	From 1975: Danish Cancer Registry, supplemented by pathology reports and death certificates	Born in Greenland and living in Greenland at the time of diagnosis	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland	–	Modified version of ICD- 7 converted to ICD-9 (180)
e) Friborg et al. 2003 [18]	1973–1997^b	From 1975: Danish Cancer Registry	Cohort of all women born in Greenland and alive on 1 January 1973 or later^e	Person years at risk in the cohort	–	Modified version of ICD-7 (171)
f) Nielsen et al. 1988 [80]	1976–1985	Pathology reports; cervical cancers were cross-checked with the Danish Cancer Registry	Born in Greenland and living in Greenland	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland	–	–
g) Nielsen et al. 1993 [82]	1976–1991	Pathology reports; cervical cancers were cross-checked with the Danish Cancer Registry^f	Born in Greenland and living in Greenland	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland^g	–	–
i) Kelly et al. 2008 [19]	1989–2003	Danish Cancer Registry	Born in Greenland and living in Greenland	Women born in Greenland and living in Greenland	–	ICD-10:53/ ICD-9:180

–, not reported. ^ap. 12–13; ^buntil 1974, the source of information was Nielsen (1986) [4]; ^cp. 11–12; ^dp. 16; ^e The cohort consisted of 72 331 individuals. Follow-up started on 1 January 1973, or at date of birth, whichever occurred last, and ended at the date of cancer diagnosis, death, emigration, registrational disappearance, or 31 December 1997; whichever occurred first. Cancers in Greenlanders living in Denmark at the time of diagnosis were included; ^fThis cross-check perhaps not done for 1989–1991 (Nils Højgaard Nielsen, personal communication, 2012); ^gDenominators for calculation retrieved by authors from Prener et al. (1991) [23] (year 1976) and from Greenland Statistics [8] (years 1977–1991).

Figure 1. Incidence of cervical cancer in Denmark and Greenland. ^a For Denmark, the source was NORDCAN and a three-year smoothing was used [21]. See Table I for Greenland: a) Nielsen 1986 [4], b) Prener et al. 1991 [23], c) Melbye et al. 1984 [17], d) Kjaer et al. 1996 [13], e) Friborg et al. 2003 [18], f) Nielsen et al. 1988 [80], g) Nielsen et al. 1993 [82], h) Gorm Nørgaard Pedersen, personal communication, 2011, i) Kelly et al. 2008 [19]; ^b For a smooth representation of the incidence rate, we computed and plotted the five-year moving average based, for each year, on all available incidence rate estimates (population- and ethnicity-based).

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