Data collection and Definitions

dane medyczne

The principles of data collection and the institutions responsible for cancer registration in Poland are defined by the following laws: the Act on Public Statistics (Dz.U. 1995 No. 88 item 439), the Act on the health care information system (Dz.U. 2011 No. 113 item 657), and regulations issued on its basis (Dz.U. 2012 item 1497, Dz.U. 2018 item 1197).

In Poland, the new cancer cases are registered based on malignant neoplasm notification forms (MZ/N-1a).
Cancer mortality was calculated using data from death certificates registered by Statistics Poland. All presented data are collected following the 10th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Health Problems.

Definitions

  • The crude cancer incidence (mortality) rate denotes the number of cases (deaths) per 100,000 individuals in the studied population.
  • The age-specific incidence (mortality) rate shows the frequency of a given disease in a particular age group and is also expressed per 100,000 people in this specific age group.
  • The age-standardized incidence (mortality) rates indicate how many new cases (deaths) would occur in the studied population if the age structure in this population was the same as the one in the standard population. The “Standard World Population” ASW  and “European Standard Population 2013” (ASE) were deployed as standard populations.
  • Cumulative risk of developing or dying from cancer – a measure of the total risk that a specific event (diagnosis or death due to disease) will happen during a given time. In cancer research, it is the likelihood that a person who is free of a specific type of cancer will develop that cancer by a specific age. Read more »