Role of the cancer registries in determining cancer mortality in Asia?

Data on incidence, prevalence, and disease specific mortality are frequently incomplete, not very reliable or are lacking in many countries particularly in Asia and Africa. In the absence of dependable data from the Civil Registration System (CRS), many countries have developed their own Sample Registration System (SRS). Due to several socio-economic constraints cause is not adequately noted in the death certificates. Sample registration system practice in India helps in this but for correlating with cancer registry data this is not the optimal. When cancer morbidity figures from SRS system and cancer registry are compared the SRS figures are low. Reasons for fewer cancer deaths in Municipal Corporation reports may be due to that they only look at primary cause of death and overlook the secondary or underlying causes. There are also a number of reasons for under-registration of cancer deaths in cancer registries but they nevertheless give a more accurate picture. Many registries collect follow-up information for survival studies, which is also helpful to improve cancer mortality data. Tumour registries also represent important resources for rapid identification of cancer survivors for research studies.