BMJ 1995;310:1327 (20 May)

Letters

Accuracy of local data on skin cancer

Skin cancer registry data may greatly underestimate cases

EDITOR,--Clive Richards and colleagues highlight the problem of underregistration of skin cancer: when they compared the South Western Cancer Registry's data with data obtained direct from pathology departments they found that the registry had missed 13% of cases of malignant melanoma.1 It is known that many cancer registries do not obtain data from all possible sources, including pathology laboratories and outpatient departments.2

John N Newton and Julia Redburn show that registration of malignant melanoma in women fell dramatically from 11.41/100000 in 1988 to 7.53/100000 in 1992.3 Although it is hoped that this decrease in registration represents a true decrease in incidence, the change is so dramatic that additional artefactual elements could be exaggerating this trend.

In West Glamorgan we have seen an increase in the proportion of women presenting with lesions less than 1.5 mm deep so that over the past three . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Skin cancer: how accurate are local data?
Clive Richards, Hilary Richards, and Derek Pheby
BMJ 1995 310: 503. [Full Text]

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