Colorectal cancer: key data sources
Scottish Cancer Registry - incidence data
The Scottish Cancer Registry has been collecting population-based information on cancer since 1958. Details available for each case include personal, demographic and diagnosis information (e.g. site, histology, behaviour, histological confirmation, date and hospital of diagnosis). For further information on the Scottish Cancer Registry see the Overview of key data sources section. The detailed statistics are available from the colorectal cancer area of the ISD Scotland web site.
General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) - mortality data
The GROS is responsible for the registration of deaths in Scotland and all deaths must be recorded in the deaths register. The register records, amongst other things, the cause, time, date and place of death. For further information on the mortality data collected by the GROS see the Overview of key data sources section, and access the data from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) website.
UK data
Incidence and mortality data for England and Wales are available on the cancer section of the ONS website (select what you want from the product list on the page this link directs you to).
The Cancer Atlas of the United Kingdom and Ireland 1991-2000 contains interesting graphical comparisons and background information.
International datasets
The EUCAN database includes comparisons of incidence, mortality and prevalence of cancer across the European Union. The degree of detail and quality of data vary considerably across countries, and some of the information is based on samples rather than national populations. For this reason, selected countries have been included in the analyses shown on this web site. The EUCAN database presents UK, not Scotland-level information, so comparative information must be obtained from the colorectal cancer area of the ISD Scotland web site.
This information is also available globally on the GLOBOCAN database.
Comparisons of survival from cancer across Europe are available from the EUROCARE web site along with background papers discussing the validity and comparability of these estimates.
Coding
Colorectal cancer is coded according to the International Coding of Disease Classification (ICD):
- ICD version9 code : 153 and 154 (from 1979-1996 for incidence, and 1979-1999 for mortality)
- ICD version10 code : C18 – C21 (from 1997 onwards for incidence, and from 2000 for mortality). However, anal cancers (ICD-9 154.2, 154.3 and 154.8; ICD-10 C21) are sometimes excluded from colorectal cancer statistics.
