How is the information used?

Cancer registration is necessary for the following purposes;

Assessing patterns and trends of cancer case numbers, risk, treatment and survival over time and in relation to factors such as age, cancer stage and geographic area
Planning cancer services
Supporting evaluation of the quality of cancer services
Research on the causes and prevention of cancer

Our functions as set out in legislation and are summarised graphically below.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1991/si/19/made/en/print

The NCRI works on behalf of the Department of Health and collects information from all hospitals in Ireland on the number of persons diagnosed with cancer and the types of cancer (or related tumour) they have.  For every new cancer, we register the name, address, sex and date of birth of the patient, PPSN, the type and location of the cancer, how advanced the cancer is and the treatment received by the patient. NCRI also follows up the numbers dying from their cancer or from other causes. The data collected by the NCRI is used for statistical and research purposes and is not used in the clinical care of the patient. The information collected is maintained in a central register to provide a national cancer dataset on the incidence of cancer in Ireland. This data is subject to rigorous quality assurance, including external checks developed by the International Association for Research on Cancer, ensuring that our data conforms to the highest international standards in cancer registration. NCRI adhere to GDPR Article 5 Principles relating to processing of personal data.


Datasets are produced routinely for annual incidence reports, specific research projects, for service planning and evaluation and other general enquires. Since 1994 the dataset has been used in many types of publications; such as cancer trends and projections, statistical reports and research publications. https://www.ncri.ie/publications


Requests for datasets or aggregated statistics can also be made through the website.
https://www.ncri.ie/content/request-specific-grouped-data


Data will be released provided there are no conflicts with the NCRI’s obligations under the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation; for this reason certain variables listed in this data dictionary may not be available for requests.

Building 6800
Cork Airport Business Park
Kinsale Road, Cork T12 CDF7
Email Contact us here
Tel: +353 (0) 21 4318014
Fax: +353 (0) 21 4318016

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