BMJ 1994;308:791 (19 March)

Letters

Collecting data on cancer

EDITOR, - Few people would disagree with S J Karp's plea for improving the collection of data on patients with cancer.1 The case Karp makes for the clinical oncology information network, however, is unconvincing. One justification claimed for the network is that three studies came to erroneous conclusions in auditing the outcomes of care because they used data for cancer registries.*RF 2-4* This is incorrect; Karp has misunderstood the studies' design.

All three studies were based on review of case notes; the cancer registry was used as all or part of the sampling frame. The third paper Karp quotes, by Chouillet et al, did not examine outcomes at all. The two others (which did) interpreted the differences in survival and disease free interval with care. Moreover, these and other studies that have used data from cancer registries augmented by case notes have made important observations about the treatment of cancer.5,6 . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Clinical oncology information network
S J Karp
BMJ 1994 308: 147-148. [Extract] [Full Text]

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