Completeness of reporting of cancer cases by cancer unit Jaffna to the national cancer registry

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The hospital based national cancer registry provides information regarding current status and trends related to cancer in the country. The cancer unit, Jaffna Teaching Hospital provides the information regarding cancer patients in Jaffna District to the national cancer registry. Objective: To estimate the degree of completeness of reporting of cancer cases by the cancer unit Jaffna to national cancer registry of Sri Lanka. METHODS: Details regarding personal identification and diagnosis of cancer during the period January 2006 to December 2008 were obtained from the following sources - indoor morbidity mortality registers (IMMR) in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and other hospitals in the Jaffna District, case records at cancer unit, Jaffna, Histopathology reports at Teaching Hospital Jaffna and at Cancer Aid North/East and death certificates from Registrars of births and deaths in the Jaffna District. Sources were contacted and filtered for repetition and duplication. Number of cases from each of the sources and overlapping of cases between sources were calculated. Capture-recapture method was used to estimate the total number of cancer cases. RESULTS: The numbers of cancer cases from the different sources were: IMMR - 956, Cancer Unit - 786, Histopathology - 684 and Death Certificates - 558. There was varying degree of overlap between sources. Number of cancer cases estimated by capture-recapture method - 1147 (95% Confidence Interval - 1082-1215). Estimated completeness of reporting of cancer unit was 69% (95% CI- 65 - 73%) CONCLUSION: The completeness of hospital based cancer registry can be improved by collecting additional information from the IMMR and the pathology laboratory.