title: Information on chemotherapy and hormone therapy from tumor registry had moderate agreement with chart reviews.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registries provide accurate information on cancer surgery and radiation, but the validity of registry data on chemotherapy and hormone therapy for breast cancer has not been well studied. We validated the registry data for chemotherapy and hormone therapy against an independent medical chart review.
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified 1,228 women diagnosed with breast cancer at age > or = 65 in 1993-1999 in the New Mexico SEER Tumor Registry and completed medical chart reviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, there was moderate agreement between these two databases on chemotherapy that was received within 6 months of diagnosis. The observed agreement was 96.0%, with a kappa of 0.72 (95% confidence interval: 0.64-0.79). The sensitivity of the registry data for chemotherapy was 70.7% and the specificity was 98.2%. The positive predictive value of the registry data for chemotherapy was 77.8%. The sensitivity of the registry data for hormone therapy was 59.7%, and the specificity was 89.5%. The observed agreement for hormone therapy was 80.0%, with a kappa of 0.52 (0.46-0.57).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Agreement on chemotherapy and hormone therapy between the New Mexico SEER Tumor Registry and chart reviews was moderate. The preferred approach would be to combine data from different sources to obtain more complete information.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, 1200 Herman Pressler Drive, RAS-E631, Houston, TX 77030, USA. xdu@sph.uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Xianglin L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Key
authors.forename: Lois
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dickie
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Darling
authors.forename: George L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Delclos
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006728:Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D009516:New Mexico; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018426:SEER Program
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D006728:Hormones