Cancer registry based project on survival and care of cancer patients in Europe
The EUROCARE-4 database included data on more than 13 millions of cancer diagnoses from 1978 to 2002, with follow-up for vital status ascertainment until the end of 2003. These data were received from 93 population based cancer registries in 23 European countries.
This allowed to document persistent between-country differences in ‘real world’ cancer survival. For the first time, a period survival analysis was applied to the largest available European dataset. Period analysis provides more up-to-date long-term survival estimates, as it considers the survival experience of the most recently diagnosed cancer patients. In EUROCARE-4, period survival estimates were derived for the follow up period 2000-2003.
