Legislation to protect individual confidentiality: the case of cancer registration in Germany.

Until 1994, cancer registration in Germany was characterized by non-uniformity. This was caused by different legal requirements for population-based cancer registries in the individual states (or Länder), resulting in either incomplete registration on the one hand, or the impossibility of using the data at the individual level for epidemiologic studies on the other hand. These existing disadvantages can be overcome with the new Act on Cancer Registration that came into effect in 1995. The new Act on Cancer Registration in Germany is discussed as a compromise between the interests of data protection and those of epidemiologic research.