Krebsregistrierung im Europäischen und nichteuropäischen Ausland. Was können wir lernen?

Context. Approximately 500 cancer registries exist world-wide. The coverage, quality and extent of data recording as well as the duration of cancer registration differ regionally. Cancer registries have already been running for many decades in some regions (e.g. USA, Scandinavia and UK) and represent a prominent data source for clinical and epidemiological research and for decisions of stakeholders in health care.Objective. The aim of this study was a summary of important international trends in cancer registration, clarifying the role of German cancer registration in the international context.Material and methods. A narrative presentation of international cancer registration from different sources (e.g. scientific literature, gray areas of literature and expert knowledge). Results. Although the oldest cancer registry world-wide is located in Hamburg Germany (1926) the establishment of registration in all federal states in Germany only started in 1995 after introduction of the Federal Cancer Registration Act. In the following 18 years the data of the German cancer registries became an important data source which has become internationally well respected.There is a global trend towards intensified computerized cancer registration and associated with it a more and more individual- related linkage of different data sources. Therefore, not only primary facts of the cancer situations can be improved (e.g. incidence, spatial and temporal trends) but the information from the different data sources could be more helpful in the context of oncological health care and can be made available for health care stakeholders. A fundamental relevance of data protection and data privacy is an assumption to link several data sources. Germany has a world-wide leadership in data protection behavior.Considerable effort is undertaken internationally to achieve and to improve a high level of data quality in the cancer registries. A high level of data quality as well as data presentation and data supply focused on target groups is necessary for an adequate use of data from cancer registries for health care and research.Conclusions. All in all, Germany is on the right way. The current development of clinical cancer registration is a relevant step in the right direction. In this respect the (scientific) use of data from the German cancer registration has to be significantly intensified.