Can cancer registries show whether treatment is contributing to survival increases for melanoma of the skin at a population level?

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: It is uncertain whether survival increases from melanoma recorded by some population registries include a treatment effect. The US Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) programme has good data quality control, large numbers of cases enabling high statistical precision and summary stage plus thickness, which we consider to be a best-case population registry scenario to investigate potential for a treatment effect. We have investigated SEER data to indicate whether survivals increases are fully attributable to earlier diagnosis and other non-treatment factors.

Reasons for improved survival from ovarian cancer in New South Wales, Australia, between 1980 and 2003: implications for cancer control.

We analyzed New South Wales Central Cancer Registry data for 1980-2003, to determine time trends in case fatality from ovarian cancer, after adjusting for stage, histological, and sociodemographic factors, and to consider service-delivery and research implications. After adjusting for covariates, the relative risk (95% confidence limit) of ovarian-cancer death reduced to 0.51 (0.