DATA SET: BC CANCER AGENCY REGISTRY DATA

Date Range: January 1, 1985 onwards (calendar year)

Data Source: BC Cancer Agency (BCCA)

Description

Information on all cancers diagnosed for BC residents and reported to the BC Cancer Agency.

The data in this file are extracted from the larger BCCA Cancer Registry Identifying Data (CAIS Warehouse). In BC, cancer is a reportable disease. The sources of registrations are haematology and pathology reports, death certificates, hospital reports, and cancer treatment centres. The BC Cancer Registry is estimated to cover at least 95% of all cancer cases.

Inclusions

All cases with a BC postal code or province code are included.

Exclusions

Benign cases are excluded.
All cases from outside BC or outside Canada are excluded.

Data Changes Over Time

Over the years, coding for cancers in BC has changed based on revisions to the WHO International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O). Prior to December 31, 1991, ICD-O-1 was used, from January 1, 1992 until December 31, 2000 ICD-O-2 was used, and since January 1, 2001 ICD-O-3 is now used to code topographic point of origin and histology. The Cancer Incidence data files held by Population Data BC include fields for ICD-O codes in both the version (ICD-O-1,-2,-3) originally entered in the database, and the current version (ICD-O-3).

References

Additional information on the BC Cancer Registry is available at: http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/HPI/CancerStatistics/default.htm..

Fields Available

Field Name	Description
agency_id agency_id_encrypted	A unique identifier for each patient (unencrypted) - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release A project-specific encrypted id
birth_date_month	Month of birth - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
birth_date_year	Year of birth - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
diagnosis_date	The date the patient's disease was first diagnosed. When the day of diagnosis is missing the system automatically sets it to 01. If the day and month of diagnosis are missing the system automatically sets the day and month to 01. Date of dx - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
hist1	The highest ICD-O3 histology code of the patient's distinct primary disease
hist1_desc	The English description for the hist1 ICD-O3 histology code
loc_at_diag	The Canadian postal code or Statistics Canada geographic code of the patient's home address at the time of diagnosis
loc_at_dx_geocode_descr	The description of the "non-Canadian postal code" in the 'loc_at_diag' field
method_of_confirm	The highest level used to confirm the patient's diagnosis
method-of_conf_descr	The description of the 'method_of_confirm' code
site	The ICD-O3 site code for the patient's distincy primary disease
site-desc	The English description for the ICD-O3 site code
site_num	A system generated number, assigned in sequence, to each primary site record per patient
age_at_diagnosis	The age of the patient at the time of diagnosis (system-generated '01's are not included in the calculation
age_at_diag_estimated	A flag to indicate age_at_diagnosis was calculated using a birth date and/or diagnosis date where the day or month were not entered
behaviour	The fifth digit of the patient's ICD-O histology code (between 8000 and 9999) entered into the hist1 column
birth_fuzz	A flag (M) when month of birth is system-generated to '01'
diag_local_health_area	The local health area of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
diag_lha_desc	The description of the 'diag_local_health_area' code
diag_type	The level at which the patient's disease information has been entered into the system (Registry, Provisional, Final, Amended)
diag_type_desc	The description of the 'diag_type' code
diagnosis_fuzz	A flag indicating the day of diagnosis is system-generated to '01' (D) or the day and month of diagnosis are system-generated to '01' (M)
dx_hlth_auth	The health authority code of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
dx_hlth_auth_desc	The health authority descirption of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
dx_hsda	The health service delivery area code of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
dx_hsda_desc	The health service delivery area description of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
dx_hsda_cc	The health service delivery area and cancer centre catchment of the patient's BC postal code at the time of diagnosis
dx_hsda_cc_desc	The description of the 'dx_hsda_cc' code
hist2	The second highest ICD-O histology code of the patient's distinct primary disease, if appropriate
hist2_desc	The English description for the hist2 ICD-O histology code
hist3	The third highest ICD-O histology code of the patient's distinct primary disease, if applicable
hist3_desc	The English description for the hist3 ICD-O histology code
known_birth_date_month	The birth-date as entered (with '0's) without system-generated '01's. Month of birth - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
known_birth_date_year	The birth-date as entered (with '0's) without system-generated '01's. Year of birth - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
known_diagnosis_date	The diagnosis date as entered (with '0's) without system-generated '01's - Research rationale describing why this field is required must be supplied before it will be considered for release
laterality	The anatomical side of the of patient's distinct primary disease
sex	The patient's gender
tumour_group_desc	The description of the 'tumour_group' code
tumour_subgroup	The subgroup of the tumour group assigned to the patient's primary disease
tumour_subgroup_desc	The description of the 'tumour-subgroup' code

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