How are cancers registered in Australia?
All Australian states and territories have legislation that makes the reporting of all cancers (other than basal and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin) mandatory. State and territory population-based cancer registries receive information on cancer diagnoses from a variety of sources such as hospitals, pathology laboratories, radiotherapy centres and registries of births, deaths and marriages. When any of these institutions deal with someone with cancer, they are required by law to notify the cancer registries.
What information is collected by a cancer registry?
Information is collected about patients with cancer and includes:
- name and address
- sex
- date of birth
- country of birth
- whether the person is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent
- clinical details about the cancer
- the notifying institution and doctor.
Personal details such as name and address are needed to ensure that accurate information is recorded for each person and that each new cancer is only counted once in the statistics.
All information sent to the cancer registries is kept confidential, held under tight security and protected by legislation.
Who can access the cancer registry?
The cancer registry in each state or territory sends information to the National Cancer Statistics Clearing House at the AIHW to compile into a national database of cancer incidence, the Australian Cancer Database.
Cancer data are also made available to the World Health Organization, state and local government authorities, health care institutions, health professionals and medical researchers. The contact details of the state and territory cancer registries can be accessed here.