Cancer Registries

Cancer registries are databases or collections of records about patients with cancer. The international registry for cancer research is the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). In the Czech Republic, these records are collected by the Národní onkologický registr (NOR). The purpose of NOR is the registration of oncological diseases and periodic monitoring of their further development, i.e. data collection, verification, storage, protection and processing. NOR provides aggregate data for statistical surveys at both national and international levels, as well as for epidemiological studies and health research. NOR data also serve to support the early diagnosis and treatment of neoplasms and pre-neoplastic conditions, to monitor trends in their occurrence, causal factors and social consequences. NOR is a member of the IARC (International Association of Cancer Registries) in Lyon, cooperates with the European Network of Cancer Registries and maintains contact with registries abroad. NOR is an integral part of comprehensive oncological care.

The data tracked by NOR

 * Birth number (to find out age and gender),
 * permanent residence (municipality code only),
 * social status (employee, self-employed, unemployed, unemployed, homeless, unknown),
 * status (person living in cohabitation, alone, unknown),
 * country of origin,
 * cancer detected during (screening, preventive examination, clinically manifest cancer, autopsy, other method, unknown),
 * the date of the first visit to the doctor,
 * date of diagnosis,
 * smoking (yes, no, ex-smoker, unknown),
 * laterality (in the case of a paired organ),
 * examination leading to diagnosis (clinically manifest symptoms, histology, surgery, cytology, imaging methods, endoscopy, biochemical or immunological laboratory examination, markers, autopsy, DCO = "Death Certificate Only" - determination of diagnosis only on the basis of the Death Certificate),
 * diagnosis (to be completed in Czech or Latin in the most accurate form possible).

Notifiable diseases
ICD: II. Chapter of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD − 10: Tenth Revision, ICD − 9: Ninth Revision).

Also reported cases:
 * not histologically or cytologically verified, detected only by clinical examination, possibly by imaging examination methods,
 * cancer diagnosed at the patient's death, when the information about the tumor is not in the medical documentation and the diagnosis of cancer is given only on the form "Death certificate" (these are the so-called cases DCO = death certificate only),
 * cancer detected at autopsy;
 * illness in persons with citizenship of the Czech Republic and in foreigners with a permit for permanent or long-term (visa over 90 days) residence in the Czech Republic.