[An estimation of the national cancer incidence in Korea for 2000-2002 using the databases of 8 population-based regional cancer registries].

OBJECTIVES: Valid data on the national cancer incidence (NCI) is the data should be needed to plan, monitor and evaluate the national cancer control programs. The purpose of this study was to estimate the NCI for 2000-2002 from 8 population-based cancer registries database in Korea (KRCR DB).

METHODS: We defined the expected number of cancer cases in each registry as the number of observed cases and then adding to the weighted observed cases, according to sex, age groups, and the proportion of the population covered by each registry for the population of the eight regions and the population of all areas with excluding the 8 regions. From the expected number of total cancer incidents, the estimated NCI was calculated by dividing the expected number of cancer cases by the number of the total population. The standard error (SE) of the estimated incidence was also taken from the expected number of total cancer incidents.

RESULTS: The overall estimated crude rates in 2000-2002 were 267.1 and 219.0 per 100,000 for men and women, respectively. The overall age-standardized rates (ASR) were 290.1 and 180.7 per 100,000, respectively. Compared with the ASRs obtained from Korea National Cancer Incidence database (KNCI DB), the estimated ASRs from the KRCR DB did not show statistically significant differences except for some cancers in women. For the aspect of the SE, index of DCO(death certificate only) and of MV(microscopically verified), the estimated ASRs from the KRCR DB are more accurate and they have higher quality rather than the calculated ASRs from the KNCI DB.

CONCLUSIONS: We found that this developed method using the KRCR DB is valid and it could be another strategy for estimating the NCI in Korea.