Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21659366›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2011

Evidence against the proposition that "UK cancer survival statistics are misleading": simulation study with National Cancer Registry data.

Laura M Woods, Michel P Coleman, Gill Lawrence, Jem Rashbass, Franco Berrino, Bernard Rachet

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.

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  18. RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS IN BREAST CANCER TREATMENT: A HEALTH PRODUCTION APPROACH.International journal of technology assessment in health care · 2015
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.

Laura M WoodsCancer Research UK Cancer Survival Group, Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK. laura.woods@lshtm.ac.uk
Michel P Coleman
Gill Lawrence
Jem Rashbass
Franco Berrino
Bernard Rachet
Cancer Research UK · GBFondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori · ITLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine · GBNational Cancer Registration Service · GBUniversity of Birmingham · GBUniversity of London · GB

Funding

Cancer Research UK 11415
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo simulate each of two hypothesised errors in the National Cancer Registry (recording of the date of recurrence of cancer, instead of the date of diagnosis, for registrations initiated from a death certificate; long term survivors who are never notified to the registry), to estimate their possible effect on relative survival, and to establish whether lower survival in the UK might be due to one or both of these errors.

designSimulation study.

settingNational Cancer Registry of England and Wales. Population Patients diagnosed as having breast (women), lung, or colorectal cancer during 1995-2007 in England and Wales, with follow-up to 31 December 2007.

main outcome measureMean absolute percentage change in one year and five year relative survival associated with each simulated error.

resultsTo explain the differences in one year survival after breast cancer between England and Sweden, under the first hypothesis, date of diagnosis would have to have been incorrectly recorded by an average of more than a year for more than 70% of women known to be dead. Alternatively, under the second hypothesis, failure to register even 40% of long term survivors would explain less than half the difference in one year survival. Results were similar for lung and colorectal cancers.

conclusionsEven implausibly extreme levels of the hypothesised errors in the cancer registry data could not explain the international differences in survival observed between the UK and other European countries.

Indexed as

RegistriesDeath CertificatesFemaleHumansMaleNeoplasmsRecurrenceSurvivorsUnited Kingdom

Identifiers

PMID21659366
PMCPMC3111483
OpenAlexW2074209272

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.