The 2013 Canadian Cancer Registry (CCR) is now available for use by researchers at the Atlantic Research Data Centre (ARDC). The CCR is an administrative database with the primary objective of providing a national database of information that can be used to produce standardized and comparable statistics for cancer incidence and survival data for each primary type of cancer. This information is used to assist and support health planners and decision-makers at all levels of government to: identify risk factors for cancer; plan, monitor and evaluate a broad range of cancer control programs (e.g., screening); and, conduct research in health services and economics.

The CCR is a dynamic database of all Canadian residents, alive or dead, who have been diagnosed with cancer since 1992. The CCR is a patient-based system that records the type and number (incidence) of primary cancers diagnosed for each person until death. Subsequent primary cancers occurring for patients who are already in the database are linked to their existing patient information. The advantage of this system is that longitudinal data is available for each cancer patient. The patient data is regularly linked to mortality data (death clearance) to optimize the accuracy of date, cause, and place of death fields in the CCR and to identify potential primary cancers not currently registered in the CCR. Since patients’ records remain active on the CCR until confirmation of their death, survival rates for the various forms of cancer can be calculated.

For more information on The Canadian Cancer Registry 2013:
http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3207

For more information on the ARDC and application procedures:
www.atlanticresearchdatacentre.dal.ca
ardc@dal.ca
902-494-1545