5.3.3 Data presentation

Cancer is a mix of diseases with different burden in the European populations. For this reason cancer outcome indicators (i.e. incidence, mortality, survival) are presented here subdivided per selected cancer site: stomach (ICD-9 code 151), colorectal (ICD-9 codes 153,154), lung (ICD-9 code 162), female breast (ICD-9 code 174), cervix (ICD-9 code 180), prostate cancers (ICD-9 code 185), and all cancers combined (ICD-9 codes 140-172 and 174-208). Each cancer site is presented according to the following figures (or set of them):

-         Cancer incidence estimates in the European countries for the year 2006 (Ferlay et al, 2007).

-         Cancer incidence estimates trends in men and women separated by broad geographical area (Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia; Northern Europe: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom; Southern Europe: Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain; Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland).

-         The basic mortality and population information were downloaded from WHO online database through the EPICANCER website (http://epicancer.iss.it) and the IARC World Cancer database (http://www-dep.iarc.fr/). IARC also produced estimates in 2006 (Ferlay et al, 2007). The WHO Database provides annual reported data on mortality statistics by age, sex, and cause of death as obtained from civil registration systems in countries. The data available comprise deaths registered in national vital registration systems, with underlying cause of death as coded by the relevant national authority. Data are included only for countries reporting data properly coded according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

-         Cancer mortality trends in men and women separately by geographical area from 1980 to 2004 as supplied by the WHO.

-         5-year relative survival for men and women. This indicator is available for selected European countries from the EUROCARE project (Sant et al, 2003; Berrino et al, 2007; Verdecchia et al, 2007). In the case of Czech Republic, survival estimates were taken from the EUROCARE study where historically only partial data exports from the Czech National Cancer Registry were provided ( 8% export from registry database with 100% coverage). The estimates do not reflect the distribution of clinical stages and cannot be used as representative basis for the assessment of results and quality of care. The Czech Republic intends to prepare more recent, age- and stage-specific estimates of survival by the end of 2008.

Figures on cancer incidence, mortality and 5-year relative survival show European countries ordered by their per capita Gross Domestic Product as published by EUROSTAT for 2006. The risk of cancer increases with age; furthermore, for several malignancies survival is lower in the elderly patients than in the younger ones. For these reasons all incidence, mortality and relative survival data presented in the following paragraphs are age-adjusted.