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BACKGROUND: Population-based cancer registries constitute an important information source in cancer epidemiology. Studies collating and comparing data across regional and national boundaries have proved important for deploying and evaluating effective cancer-control strategies. A critical aspect in correctly comparing cancer indicators across regional and national boundaries lies in ensuring a good and harmonised level of data quality, which is a primary motivator for a centralised collection of pseudonymised data. The recent introduction of the European Union's general data-protection regulation (GDPR) imposes stricter conditions on the collection, processing, and sharing of personal data. It also considers pseudonymised data as personal data. The new regulation motivates the need to find solutions that allow a continuation of the smooth processes leading to harmonised European cancer-registry data. One element in this regard would be the availability of a data-validation software tool based on a formalised depiction of the harmonised data-validation rules, allowing an eventual devolution of the data-validation process to the local level. RESULTS: A semantic data model was derived from the data-validation rules for harmonising cancer-data variables at European level. The data model was encapsulated in an ontology developed using the Web-Ontology Language (OWL) with the data-model entities forming the main OWL classes. The data-validation rules were added as axioms in the ontology. The reasoning function of the resulting ontology demonstrated its ability to trap registry-coding errors and in some instances to be able to correct errors. CONCLUSIONS: Describing the European cancer-registry core data set in terms of an OWL ontology affords a tool based on a formalised set of axioms for validating a cancer-registry's data set according to harmonised, supra-national rules. The fact that the data checks are inherently linked to the data model would lead to less maintenance overheads and also allow automatic versioning ...

INTRODUCTION: Europe is an important focus for compiling accurate and up-to-date world cancer statistics owing to its large share of the world's total cancer burden. This article presents incidence and mortality estimates for 25 major cancers across 40 individual countries within European areas and the European Union (EU-27) for the year 2020. METHODS: The estimated national incidence and mortality rates are based on statistical methodology previously applied and verified using the most recently collected incidence data from 151 population-based cancer registries, mortality data and 2020 population estimates. RESULTS: Estimates reveal 4 million new cases of cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and 1.9 million cancer-related deaths. The most common cancers are: breast in women (530,000 cases), colorectum (520,000), lung (480,000) and prostate (470,000). These four cancers account for half the overall cancer burden in Europe. The most common causes of cancer deaths are: lung (380,000), colorectal (250,000), breast (140,000) and pancreatic (130,000) cancers. In EU-27, the estimated new cancer cases are approximately 1.4 million in males and 1.2 million in females, with over 710,000 estimated cancer deaths in males and 560,000 in females. CONCLUSION: The 2020 estimates provide a basis for establishing priorities in cancer-control measures across Europe. The long-established role of cancer registries in cancer surveillance and the evaluation of cancer control measures remain fundamental in formulating and adapting national cancer plans and pan-European health policies. Given the estimates are built on recorded data prior to the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), they do not take into account the impact of the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) clinical guidelines offer evidence-based recommendations to improve quality of healthcare for patients with or at risk of BC. Suboptimal adherence to recommendations has the potential to negatively affect population health. However, no study has systematically reviewed the impact of BC guideline adherence -as prognosis factor- on BC healthcare processes and health outcomes. The objectives are to analyse the impact of guideline adherence on health outcomes and on healthcare costs. METHODS: We searched systematic reviews and primary studies in MEDLINE and Embase, conducted in European Union (EU) countries (inception to May 2019). Eligibility assessment, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted by one author and crosschecked by a second. We used random-effects meta-analyses to examine the impact of guideline adherence on overall survival and disease-free survival, and assessed certainty of evidence using GRADE. RESULTS: We included 21 primary studies. Most were published during the last decade (90%), followed a retrospective cohort design (86%), focused on treatment guideline adherence (95%), and were at low (80%) or moderate (20%) risk of bias. Nineteen studies (95%) examined the impact of guideline adherence on health outcomes, while two (10%) on healthcare cost. Adherence to guidelines was associated with increased overall survival (HR = 0.67, 95%CI 0.59–0.76) and disease-free survival (HR = 0.35, 95%CI 0.15–0.82), representing 138 more survivors (96 more to 178 more) and 336 patients free of recurrence (73 more to 491 more) for every 1000 women receiving adherent CG treatment compared to those receiving non-adherent treatment at 5 years follow-up (moderate certainty). Adherence to treatment guidelines was associated with higher costs, but adherence to follow-up guidelines was associated with lower costs (low certainty). CONCLUSIONS: Our review of EU studies suggests that there is moderate certainty that adherence to BC guidelines is associated with an improved ...