Electronic availability of EUROCARE-3 data: a tool for further analysis

The EUROCARE-3 CD-ROM has been developed to provide more detailed data with respect to those published in the monograph. The CD-ROM provides estimates of age-specific and age-standardised survival figures, cumulative and interval-specific survival, observed and relative survival for 47 cancer sites or combinations of sites, based on >4 million adult cancer patients diagnosed from 1983 to 1994 and reported from 56 European cancer registries. In addition, the CD-ROM provides observed survival proportions for 25 childhood cancer entities based on 23,000 young patients diagnosed from 1990 to 1994. Survival indicators, corresponding standard errors and confidence intervals can be selected according to cancer site, registry or country, sex, age class and disease duration. Basic graphical display and export facilities have also been provided. As an example of how to use this CD-ROM, this paper will report a descriptive analysis of relative survival patterns for all cancers combined, by age, sex and country. The EUROCARE-3 CD-ROM can be ordered free of charge or directly downloaded at http://www.eurocare.it.