Interpret & use our data

Any person can get information on cancer free of charge from the Registry. 

We produce an annual report and a summary report, both of which are in local libraries and are available from the Registry.

A wide range of information is also available on this website.  (www.ncri.ie)

We cannot give out information on individual cases or in any circumstances where it would be possible to identify an individual.  You can request the Registry to let you know if any information about you is being held. 

Registrations for non-melanoma skin cancer (ICD-10 C44) are likely to be less complete and less accurate than for other cancer sites. Such cancers are relatively common and usually non-fatal. There is a propensity for multiple tumours to occur in one individual and cancer registries adopt different practices in recording these. The tumours are most common in the elderly population and the completeness of registration in the very elderly is likely to be less than for younger patients.

Cancer registrations may come to light many months or even years after diagnosis and the cancer registration database is continually being updated. The data presented on our website or in our publications may therefore, particularly for recent years, differ slightly from other published data relating to the same time period. Hence the statistics we publish are updated on a regular basis.

The rate you should use depends on the purpose to which you propose to put the data. The European Age-Standardised Rate is a good metric by which to compare rates across Europe, and likewise the World Age-Standardised Rates is useful for comparing rates with countries outside Europe, such as the U.S. 

This is the risk to an "average" individal, given current cancer rates, of developing a cancer before his or her 75th birthday (assuming survival to that date). It is usually expressed as a percentage.

Note that cumulative risk takes no account of differences in risk factors between individuals or of possible future changes in incidence, but is based on the average Irish male or female and the current incidence rates for the population.

This is the rate that would have been found if the population of Ireland had the same age-composition (proportion of total population in each five year age class) as a hypothetical world-wide population.

The rates are calculated by applying the age-specific rates for the location being studied to a theoretical world-wide standard population, usually expressed per 100,000 persons per year. 

This is the rate that would have been found if the population of Ireland had the same age-composition (proportion of total population in each five year age class) as a hypothetical European population, known as the European Standard Population (ESP). The ESP used here is that which was introduced in 1976^a and shown in the table below.

The rates are calculated by applying the age-specific rates for the location being studied to a theoretical European standard population, usually expressed per 100,000 persons per year.

The crude rate is the number of cases or deaths divided by the population at risk, expressed per 100,000 persons per year. 

The percentage of total figure indicates what proportion of the total cancers incidence / mortality in a given area the current cancer accounts for. 

An age-standarised rate is a weighted sum of the age-specific rates which indicates the overall rate for a particular cancer. The two most commonly used age-specific rates are the European Age-Standardised Rate and the World Age-Standardised Rate.