The Role of the Registry in Cancer Control

The cancer registry is a familiar resource to the epidemiologist, yielding information on the risks of cancer in different population groups, and on the changes that occur with time, from which aetiological hypotheses can be developed. The registry provides an economical mechanism for following up industrial and other cohorts of individuals with specific exposures, and may be a useful source of subjects for case-control studies. The information collected by registries can, and should, however, be used in many other ways, notably in the planning and evaluation of cancer control programmes. Cancer control includes not only the search for epidemiological risk factors, since only by their identification can strategies of primary prevention be formulated, but also the provision of screening and early detection, therapy of established disease, and rehabilitation following treatment. Knowledge of the distribution and trends of and the magnitude of the problem posed by different cancers is clearly essential in devising appropriate health care policies; monitoring the effectiveness of the measures taken requires similar information. This publication concentrates on the role that cancer registries play in these processes. This is a reprint of the hardback edition, published in 1985.