Comparison of data from  the Norwegian Patient Register and the Cancer Registry of Norway.
BACKGROUND
The regulations of the Norwegian Patient Register (NPR) and the Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) allow linkage of the registries for evaluation of completeness and validity of data.


METHODS
Data on patients registered as having C18 (colon cancer), C19-C21 (cancer of the rectum, rectosigmoid junction or anus), C33-C34 (cancer of the lungs or trachea), C50 (breast cancer), C61 (prostate cancer) or C66-C68 (cancer of the bladder, ureter or urethra) were obtained from NPR 2008 and compared with data from CRN.


RESULTS
81 % of patients registered in NPR as having colon cancer were registered with the same diagnosis in CRN. Corresponding figures were 94 % for breast cancer (women), 97 % for prostate cancer, 82 % for cancer of the rectum, rectosigmoid junction or anus, 93 % for urinary tract cancer and 90 % for cancer of the lungs or trachea. In cases where NPR codes and CRN diagnoses did not match, a related diagnosis was often registered in the CRN.


CONCLUSIONS
The agreement between the data in NPR and CRN is relatively good for the diagnoses included in the study. The NPR codes are less precise for colon and rectal cancer than for the other major types of cancer. Regular exchange of data between the registries will further improve the quality of the data.
Norwegian Directorate of Health, Norwegian Patient Register, Trondheim, Norway. inger.johannebakken@helsedirektoratet.no
Inger Johanne
IJ
Bakken
Stein Olav
SO
Gystad
Øyvind Olav Schjøtt
ØO
Christensen
Unn Elisabeth
UE
Huse
Siri
S
Larønningen
Jan
J
Nygård
Lena
L
Holmstrøm
Tom Børge
TB
Johannesen
Bjørn
B
Møller
Inger Kristin
IK
Larsen
D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results