Descriptive epidemiology of cancer in three regions of Kazakhstan

The current study investigated data quality and estimated cancer incidence and mortality rates using data provided by Pavlodar, Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk Regional Cancer Registries of Kazakhstan during the period of 1996–1998. Assessment of data quality was performed using standard quality indicators including internal database checks, proportion of cases verified from death certificates only, mortality:incidence ratio, data patterns, proportion of cases with unknown primary site, proportion of cases with unknown age. Crude and age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, by gender, for all cancers combined and for 28 specific cancer sites for each year of the study period. The five most frequent cancers were identified and described for every population. The results of the study provide the first simultaneous assessment of data quality and standardized incidence and mortality rates for Kazakh cancer registries. ^