Utility of death certificate data in predicting cancer incidence.

Background: Studies often rely on death certificates to identify cancer occurrence. This research assessed the death certificate's ability to reflect cancer incidence and factors that influence agreement with cancer registry data.

Methods: This study compared death certificates to cancer incidence data for an occupational cohort of 1,795 deceased workers who were registered by the Iowa Cancer Registry (ICR) between 1973 and 2005.