A short history of pathology registries, with emphasis on cancer registries

In the 1950s, major technical problems for ensuring quality and effectiveness of population based registration of cancer and other conditions had been faced and solved. Nevertheless, the classical epidemiological texts published in the 1960s and the 1970s gave little attention to and showed limited enthusiasm for population-based registries of pathology. The latter, in fact, have been marginal to the dramatic evolution of basic conceptual issues such as study design and causal inference. This perspective may change with the use of registries in order to assess quality of care in a public health perspective. In looking retrospectively, marked changes occurred since the 1960s in distribution between countries and continents of cancer registries to the dataset known as "Cancer Incidence in Five Continents" (where worldwide data from cancer registries of quality converge). The number of countries with cancer registries approximately doubled vs. a fivefold increase in both the number of active cancer registries and the total population served by registration. Nevertheless the increases were concentrated in developed countries whereas in developing countries there was a substantial decrease in registration, attributable to the political and economical situation.