Understanding OSCaR Data

• Understanding OSCaR Data
  
  

  These data represent the cancers that are reportable to OSCaR:
  
  

  • All invasive malignant neoplasms, except basal and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin.
    
    
  • All in-situ carcinomas, except carcinoma in-situ of the cervix uteri, and basal and squamous cell carcinoma in-situ of the skin.
    
    
  • All non-malignant primary intracranial and central nervous system tumors
    
    

• One measure is the incidence rate, which provides information on the frequency with which cases are occurring in the population over time. Another measure is the mortality rate, which is the rate of deaths due to cancer in the Oregon population.
  
  
• Annual crude incidence rates are calculated as the total number of newly diagnosed cases divided by the overall population of Oregon.
  
  
• Age-adjusted rates are calculated to allow comparisons between two different populations (i.e., Oregon and the U.S.) whose age distributions differ.
  
  
• As a measure of disease severity and/or prognosis, we include the mortality-to-incidence (M/I) ratio. Under conditions of stable rates, the M/I ratio may be considered as the chance of eventually dying from a specific cancer (at current cure rates). Values closer to 0 indicate a good prognosis; values closer to 1 indicate a poor prognosis.

• http://seer.cancer.gov/query/
• http://wonder.cdc.gov/mortsql.html
• http://cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov/

For more information, please contact:

oscar.ohd@state.or.us