The impact of National Death Index linkages on population-based cancer survival rates in the United States.

Background: In order to ensure accurate survival estimates, population-based cancer registries must ascertain all, or nearly all, patients diagnosed with cancer in their catchment area, and obtain complete follow-up information on all deaths that occurred among registered cancer patients. In the US, linkage with state death records may not be sufficient to ascertain all deaths. Since 1979, all state vital statistics offices have reported their death certificate information to the National Death Index (NDI).

Impact of using multiple causes of death codes to compute site-specific, death certificate-based cancer mortality statistics in the United States.

Background: Cancer mortality statistics, an important indicator for monitoring cancer burden, are traditionally restricted to instances when cancer is determined to be the underlying cause of death (UCD) based on information recorded on standard certificates of death. This study's objective was to determine the impact of using multiple causes of death codes to compute site-specific cancer mortality statistics.

Methods: The state cancer registries of California, Colorado and Idaho provided linked cancer registry and death certificate data for individuals who died between 2002 and 2004, had at least one cancer listed on their death certificate and were diagnosed with cancer between 1993 and 2004.

Effect of misclassified underlying cause of death on survival estimates of colon and rectal cancer.

Inaccurate coding of patients' Underlying Cause of Death (UCOD) has constrained cause-specific survival estimates for colon and rectal cancers. Using California data from the Accuracy of Cancer Mortality study, we compared the cancer site data from the California Cancer Registry (CCR) with UCODs reported on death certificates and reclassified the UCODs based on cancer registry data when they disagreed. We then calculated 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year cause-specific survival for colon and rectal cancers separately, before and after the reclassification.

The impact of patient follow-up on population-based survival rates.

Objective: This study was designed to measure the impact of variation in patient follow-up on survival statistics.

Methods: surveillance, epidemiology and end results (SEER) data were used to construct four additional datasets. These datasets simulated scenarios of complete, incomplete, and no follow-up of live patients; and complete and incomplete death ascertainment.

The accuracy of cancer mortality statistics based on death certificates in the United States.

Background: One measure of the accuracy of cancer mortality statistics is the concordance between cancer defined as the underlying cause of death from death certificates and cancer diagnoses recorded in central, population-based cancer registries. Previous studies of such concordance are outdated.

Objective: To characterize the accuracy of cancer mortality statistics from the concordance between cancer cause of death and primary cancer site at diagnosis.

Does socioeconomic disparity in cancer incidence vary across racial/ethnic groups?

Objective: Very few studies have simultaneously examined incidence of the leading cancers in relation to socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity in populations including Hispanics and Asians. This study aims to describe SES disparity in cancer incidence within each of four major racial/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, black, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander) for five major cancer sites, including female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer.

Methods: Invasive cancers of the five major sites diagnosed from 1998 to 2002 (n = 376,158) in California were included in the study.

Racial and social class gradients in life expectancy in contemporary California.

Life expectancy, or the estimated average age of death, is among the most basic measures of a population's health. However, monitoring differences in life expectancy among sociodemographically defined populations has been challenging, at least in the United States (US), because death certification does not include collection of markers of socioeconomic status (SES). In order to understand how SES and race/ethnicity independently and jointly affected overall health in a contemporary US population, we assigned a small-area-based measure of SES to all 689,036 deaths occurring in California during a three-year period (1999-2001) overlapping the most recent US census.

Benefit of postoperative adjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer: A population-based analysis.

Background: Despite the recent completion of several trials of adjuvant therapy after resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the absolute impact on survival and the identification of appropriate patients for treatment has remained controversial. In the current study, the authors sought to identify the impact of adjuvant therapy and factors associated with any improvement in survival after resection of pancreatic cancer.

Methods: Through the California Cancer Registry, all California residents diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 1994 and 2002 were identified.

Differences in prognostic factors and survival among White men and Black men with prostate cancer, California, 1995-2004.

The authors conducted a study to determine whether differences in prostate cancer survival between White men and Black men are reduced or eliminated after accounting for differences in prognostic factors. Using population-based statewide cancer registry data, the authors analyzed data from a cohort of 122,375 non-Hispanic White men and Black men from California who were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1995 and 2004 and followed through 2004. Compared with White men, Black men were characterized by younger age at diagnosis, more distant stage, less treatment with surgery or radiation therapy, higher tumor grades, lower neighborhood socioeconomic status, and more recent year of diagnosis.

Survival among patients with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas: a population-based study (United States).

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate survival of patients diagnosed in California with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas by demographic and tumor-related factors.

Methods: Through the California Cancer Registry (CCR) we identified all California residents diagnosed with invasive pancreatic adenocarcinoma between 1994 and 2000. Demographic, tumor and treatment information was extracted from the CCR, and socioeconomic status (SES) was assigned based on census block group of residence.