United States Cancer Statistics (USCS)

Questions and Answers

1. What is the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site?



2. What data does the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site contain?



3. What are the sources of the data?



4. Cancer incidence rates are presented by race and ethnicity on the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site. What cautions should be used in interpreting differences by race and ethnicity?



5. What are the two federal programs doing to improve state and national surveillance for cancer incidence?



6. What are the future plans for the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site?

1. What is the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site?

The U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site contains the official federal statistics on cancer incidence (newly diagnosed cases) from each registry that met data quality criteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have combined their cancer incidence data sources to produce these statistics. Mortality data from CDC's National Vital Statistics System are included for each state.

This Web site provides state-specific and regional data for cancer cases diagnosed and cancer deaths that occurred from 1999 to 2005 and for 2001–2005 combined. The data from 2005 are the most recent year for which incidence data are available. The Web site has been produced in collaboration with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR).*

2. What data does the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site contain?

Incidence data on more than 1 million cases of invasive cancer (including approximately 12,000 cases among children younger than 20 years) diagnosed in each of the individual years are available on this Web site. The population coverage varies by diagnosis year. Population coverage may be affected by the suppression of state incidence data if 16 or fewer cases were reported or if the state requested that the data be suppressed.

Mortality data from malignant neoplasms (i.e., cancers) as recorded in the National Vital Statistics System from the 50 states and the District of Columbia are available on this Web site, and thus with regard to mortality data, 100% of the U.S. population is covered.

3. What are the sources of the data?

Information on newly diagnosed cancer cases is based on data collected by registries in CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Together, the two federal programs, NPCR and SEER, collect cancer incidence data for the entire U.S. population. These data can be used to monitor cancer trends over time, determine cancer patterns in various populations, guide planning and evaluation of cancer control programs, help set priorities for allocating health resources, and provide information for a national database of cancer incidence. Information on cancer deaths is collected by CDC's National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

4. Cancer incidence rates are presented by race and ethnicity on the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site. What cautions should be used in interpreting differences by race and ethnicity?

Differences in rates among racial and ethnicity (Hispanic origin) populations should be interpreted with caution. A recent study using SEER data suggests that the quality of race data in cancer registries is considered excellent for whites, blacks, and Asians/Pacific Islanders, substantial for Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives have been shown to be considerably underreported. Therefore, incidence and/or mortality data published in this report may be underestimated for Asians/Pacific Islanders, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Hispanics, possibly due to racial and Hispanic origin misclassification. Recent studies involving cancer mortality data show that death rates for whites and blacks are generally reliable, whereas death rates for Asians/Pacific Islanders, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Hispanics are underestimated.

Grouping racial or Hispanic origin subpopulations into one racial or Hispanic origin population can mask differences in subpopulations. Asians/Pacific Islanders, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Hispanics are not homogeneous groups. The subpopulations are grouped into single populations because of small numbers or concerns regarding the possible misclassification of race and Hispanic origin among the subpopulations. Cancer rates by more detailed categories of race have been published in scientific journals.

5. What are the two federal programs doing to improve state and national surveillance for cancer incidence?

Both NPCR and SEER provide training and technical assistance to cancer registries. Examples of this assistance include—

• Providing on-site technical assistance to registry personnel to help ensure data completeness, timeliness, and quality. For example, software has been developed to facilitate data transmission and improve the quality of data that hospitals transmit electronically to cancer registries.



• Coordinating and convening meetings of registry personnel for information sharing, problem solving, and training.



• Helping states and national organizations use cancer data to describe regional, state, and national disease burdens; to evaluate cancer control activities; and to identify populations or geographic regions at high risk for certain cancers.



• Collaborating with academic, federal, state, and private organizations to design and conduct research using data collected through population-based state and regional registries and to report the findings.



• Promoting specialty training in epidemiology, biostatistics, surveillance research, and tumor registry methods, operations, and management.



• Developing new statistical methods, models, and software for the analysis and presentation of national, state, and small-area cancer statistics.

6. What are the future plans for the U.S. Cancer Statistics Web site?

There is now a surveillance capacity and infrastructure in all 50 states upon which to build and improve a national cancer data system. The data on this Web site illustrates the major progress made in cancer surveillance for our nation in the last decade alone. As more cancer registries are successful in meeting the USCS publication criteria, data will become available for more regions, states, and metropolitan areas. Mortality statistics for all racial and ethnic populations in all states and the District of Columbia will continue to be published. In future years, we will be able to present trends and information on other advanced surveillance activities.

*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.