title: Quality assessment of the registration of vulvar and vaginal premalignant lesions at the Cancer Registry of Norway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A crucial factor concerning the utility of Cancer Registries is the data quality with respect to comparability, completeness, validity and timeliness. However, the data quality of the registration of premalignant lesions has rarely been addressed. High grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VaIN) are premalignant lesions which may develop into cancer, and are often associated with infection with the human papillomarvirus (HPV). The aim was to evaluate the quality of registration of VIN and VaIN at the Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN).
  
  
  METHODS
  We re-collected all notifications with high grade VIN and VaIN diagnoses during 2002 to 2007 from pathology laboratories, and compared these to the data in the CRN database so as to quantitatively measure the completeness, validity and timeliness of the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over the period 2002 to 2007 we estimated the completeness of the 1556 VIN and 297 VaIN notifications to be 95.0% and 92.9%, respectively. The original and reabstracted topography codes showed major discrepancies for 12 of 642 (1.9%) VIN and 7 of 128 (5.5%) VaIN notifications. The original and reabstracted morphology codes for VIN and VaIN were identical for 724 out of 814 notifications. Sixteen notifications had a major discrepancy. For the period 2002 to 2007 the median time elapsed between date of diagnosis and date of registration were 436 and 441 days for VIN and VaIN cases, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the present analysis of the comparability, completeness, validity and timeliness of premalignant lesions of vulva and vagina, we conclude that the Cancer Registry of Norway is able to monitor such premalignant lesions satisfactorily.
authors: Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo University Hospital, Norway. esen@kreftregisteret.no
authors: Espen
authors: E
authors: Enerly
authors: Freddie
authors: F
authors: Bray
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Mellem
authors: Bo Terning
authors: BT
authors: Hansen
authors: Grete
authors: G
authors: Kjølberg
authors: Tove
authors: T
authors: Dahl
authors: Tom Børge
authors: TB
authors: Johannesen
authors: Mari
authors: M
authors: Nygård
mesh_terms: D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000473:pathology*; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D014625:Vaginal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*