AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF HEALTH AND WELFARE (AIHW)
NAME OF COLLECTION
The Australian Cancer Database (ACD)
OVERVIEW
The Australian Cancer Database (ACD) is a database held in The National Cancer Statistics Clearing House (NCSCH) and maintained by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The NCSCH is a collaborative partnership of the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries and the AIHW. The ACD It is a compilation of data collected by the eight state and territory cancer registries and its purposes are to facilitate the production of national cancer statistics and to assist various interested parties in their research.
SCOPE
The ACD contains every primary cancer, except basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin, that has occurred in Australian residents since 1982. Due to the nature of cancer data, the most recent data held at any time are approximately three years behind 'real-time'.
DATA DETAIL
Data items collected relate to persons (e.g. name, sex and date of birth) and to tumours (e.g. site of cancer, type of cancer and date of diagnosis). National level, non-identified data are available to the public. State/territory level data may be sought from individual state and territory cancer registries. Although the ACD contains the data item 'Country of Birth' there are data quality issues around this data item in some states and territories, limiting the use of this data item nationally.
GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
All state and territory cancer registries collect and provide the ACD with postcode at date of diagnosis, some also collect and provide the Statistical Local Area
AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND PUBLICATIONS
The main publication is a biennial ‘Cancer in Australia; an overview’ report. Other reports on specific cancer types or sites as well particular issues of interest such as prevalence and survival are published intermittently. Extensive summary statistics are available on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website. More specialised statistics are often provided to researchers on a fee recovery basis. No identifiable or potentially identifiable data are released to clients unless their request has been approved by all eight state and territory cancer registry ethics committees as well as the AIHW’s ethics committee.
CONTACT DETAILS
Chris Sturrock
Head, Cancer and Screening Unit
Health Group
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
GPO Box 570
Canberra ACT 2601
Ph: (02) 6244 1140
Email: cancer@aihw.gov.au
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