Klin Onkol 2007; 20(Suppl 1 20): 53-62.
This paper comments methodical principles of data registration in oncology. Cancer registries should be accepted as indispensable source of valuable information for evaluation of anti-tumor therapy. Fully functional population-based registration however requires control of all determining factors, namely data model, technological background and data quality assurance. The parametric structure
of general population registries should be minimized, primarily focused on epidemiology with only a limited number of clinical entries. Such population-based registry should be operated automatically, through direct exporting of data from hospital information systems. On the other hand, reasonable registration of cancer data for clinical conclusions must include following key components that
cannot be obtained universally for all diagnoses: (1) risk typology of newly diagnosed cases, (2) list of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and reached therapeutic response, (3) time plan of follow-up, (4) survival monitoring, (5) time and cause of death. None of these items could be omitted if the registry is targeted for clinical interpretation. Such information standard can be guaranteed only in
specialized clinical registries supervised by professional societies.
