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The National Cancer Data Base report on trends in cancer patient staging
1Early Detection Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
Background:
Previous Commission on Cancer studies have examined trends in the staging of cancer patients. Reported herein are the most current National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) data on staging.
Methods:
Two "calls for data" have yielded a total of 770,100 reports of patients with cancer eligible for staging.
Results:
For all stageable sites combined, the percentage of cases with documentation of staging increased from 1985 through 1990 (53% in 1985 vs. 77% in 1990). Cancers of the colon and breast were staged most frequently. Of the 837 NCDB-participating hospitals, 557 (67%) staged 80% or more of the patients with cancer.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that the frequency of staging is a function of hospitals rather than physicians or types of patients. Many interrelated factors contributed to the increase in the frequency of staging.