FbT Journal Club - July 2018

In Australia, State and Territory cancer registries collect cancer notifications from a range of different sources such as hospitals, laboratories, oncology units, aged care facilities, the deaths and births registry, among others. It is mandatory for public hospitals and laboratories to notify incidences of cancer to state registries, which report to a national registry. Minimum information collected include basic demographic details and tumor characteristics, however most Australian registries collect clinical data (diagnostic and treatment data). This data is used to inform population-based cancer studies e.g. to identify trends in cancer incidence, to evaluate effectiveness of cancer screening programs, among others. In most Australian registries, information is extracted from clinical documents manually.