Exploring the Use and Reporting of Cancer Registry Data by the Caribbean Region: A Scoping Review

To conduct a scoping review to identify publications that used data from Caribbean cancer registries (CRs) to characterize the type of information disseminated and identify knowledge gaps.

We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science: Core Collection and SciELO, and Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences for articles published in English, French, Dutch, or Spanish between January 2012 and May 2023. Articles that used data from a CR located in one or more Caribbean country/territory were included. In Covidence, a two-step screening process at title/abstract and full text was completed by two reviewers independently. Data were extracted from each included article independently by two reviewers using Covidence. A gray literature search of online and paper reports using CR data was also conducted to supplement the literature searches.

A total of 126 articles met the inclusion criteria and reported CR data from 1958 to 2018. Of the 33 Caribbean countries/territories included, 12 had at least one publication. Most publications (95%) used data from population-based CRs (PBCRs). Three countries/territories with PBCRs had <3 publications, and three had none. Breast, cervical, and colorectal were the most reported cancers. Ten of 14 (71%) countries/territories with a PBCR had at least one cancer incidence report available from the past 5 years.

Caribbean CRs have contributed substantially to the peer-reviewed literature, but this is limited to fewer than half of the Caribbean countries and primarily those with a PBCR. Efforts are needed to establish and support PBCRs to produce high-quality data and to bridge the gap between the collection and dissemination of CR data to address key knowledge gaps, prioritize research questions, and inform cancer control policies.