Using cancer registry data: agreement in cause-of-death data between the Ontario Cancer Registry and a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients.
Data from the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) were compared with data from a multi-centred prospective cohort of 1655 node-negative breast cancer patients with intensive clinical follow-up. Agreement in cause of death was evaluated using kappa statistics. The accuracy of OCR classification was evaluated against the Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) study oncologist's interpretation of intensely followed, cohort-collected data as the reference standard. The two sources showed a high level of agreement (kappa statistic [kappa] = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.86, 0.90) in vital status and cause of death. Among those cases where both sources reported a death, the OCR had a sensitivity of 95% (95% CI: 90.5, 98.8) and a specificity of 88% (95% CI: 79.6, 92.4). The OCR is a valuable tool for epidemiologic studies of breast cancer to acquire adequate and easily attainable cause-of-death information.
Brenner
D R
DR
The Prosserman Centre for Health Research, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON. brenner@lunenfeld.ca
Tammemägi
M C
MC
Bull
S B
SB
Pinnaduwaje
D
D
Andrulis
I L
IL
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity