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A comparison of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers reported to the National Cancer Data Base and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program
Author(s) -
Mettlin Curtis J.,
Menck Herman R.,
Winchester David P.,
Murphy Gerald P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19970515)79:10<2052::aid-cncr29>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - medicine , cancer , epidemiology , oncology , prostate , breast cancer , population , epidemiology of cancer , cancer registry , surveillance, epidemiology, and end results , prostate cancer , gynecology , environmental health
BACKGROUND The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) is an information resource and program evaluation tool of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and the American Cancer Society that uses a hospital‐based cancer reporting system. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program is a population‐based registry program of the National Cancer Institute. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the aggregate NCDB data for selected cancer types from a given year with comparable SEER data. METHODS SEER data from 1992 on 18,322 breast, 13,427 colorectal, 15,276 lung, and 21,501 prostate cancers were compared with NCDB data on 96,323 breast, 69,456 colorectal, 108,702 lung, and 107,690 prostate cancers. RESULTS Similar levels of data completeness were observed. The NCDB data tended to contain less complete information about the Spanish or Hispanic ethnicity of patients. Tumor grade data tended to be incomplete in both series. Stage information about lung and prostate cancer was more often missing in SEER data. Patient age, race, and gender in NCDB data differed little from corresponding SEER data, except that SEER data reported a greater proportion of patients in the "other" race category that included Asian‐Americans and American Indians. Tumor laterality, anatomic site, tumor grade, and types of surgical treatment were similar in the NCDB and SEER data. Radical mastectomy was performed in 49.4% of SEER breast cancer cases compared with 49.2% of NCDB cases. Cancer‐directed surgery was observed less often among SEER prostate cancer cases than among NCDB cases. The NCDB data also indicated greater use of radiation therapy than the SEER data for the four types of cancer reviewed. CONCLUSIONS The 1992 NCDB data, in aggregate, described patient and disease treatment characteristics and patterns that differed only marginally from those described in the SEER data from the same year. Cancer 1997; 79:2052‐61. © 1997 American Cancer Society.