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Cancer Statistics

Technical Notes for the SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2006

There are four measures that are commonly used to assess the impact of a cancer in the general population.

1. The incidence rate is the number of new cases per year per 100,000 persons.
2. The death (or mortality) rate is the number of deaths per year per 100,000 persons.
3. The survival rate is the proportion of patients alive at some point subsequent to the diagnosis of their cancer.
4. The prevalence count is the number of people alive that have ever been diagnosed with a cancer.

All four measures are employed in this report. The SEER Program (based within the Surveillance Research Program (SRP) at the NCI collects incidence and survival data for all areas that participate in the Program. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides mortality data for the entire US. All incidence and mortality rates in this report are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population unless otherwise specified. Age-adjustment minimizes the effect of a difference in age distributions when comparing rates.

The links in this section provide a detailed description of data sources and statistical methods used in the Cancer Statistics Review.

• The SEER Program
• Data Sources
  • Incidence and Survival Data
  • Mortality Data
  • Population Data
  • 2000 US Standard Population Data
• Statistical Methods
  • Estimated Cancer Cases and Death in 2009
  • Long-term Trends, 1950-2006
  • Cause-Specific Survival
  • Years of Life Lost
  • Cancer Prevalence
  • Probability of Being Diagnosed with or Dying from Cancer
  • US Cancer Death Rates by State
  • Joinpoint Regression Analysis of Cancer Trends
  • Reporting Delay
  • Statistical Significance
  • Standard Errors of Rates
• Definitions
• References

The full contents of this section can also be downloaded or printed from the Technical Notes (PDF Version).