Estimating the variance of cancer prevalence from population-based registries.

Cancer prevalence is the proportion of people in a population diagnosed with cancer in the past and still alive. One way to estimate prevalence is via population-based registries, where data on diagnosis and life status of all incidence cases occurring in the covered population are collected. In this paper, a method to estimate the complete prevalence and its variance from population-based registries is presented.

Standard cancer patient population for age standardising survival ratios.

Standard adult cancer patients populations are derived in this paper as a tool for the calculation of age-standardised cancer survival figures. Previously used standards in survival analysis have been site- and/or study-specific. Here, multivariate methods have been used to define the smallest possible number of general standard cancer patient populations which are simple to use and provide standardised survival values close to the raw ones for the largest possible number of cancer sites.

Explaining gastric cancer survival differences among European countries.

Wide geographic variability in incidence and mortality rates for gastric cancer exists throughout the world despite persistent decreases over several decades. Variability in survival from gastric cancer is also evident and countries with higher incidence rates of gastric cancer show better survival rates than countries with lower incidence. The aim of this study was to identify reasons for the association between incidence and survival and to obtain survival estimates and differences corrected for this variation, thus facilitating further interpretation by clinical factors such as stage and treatment.