Data quality of childhood cancer in Khon Kaen, Thailand, 1990-2007.

INTRODUCTION Khon Kaen Cancer Registry (KKCR) was established in 1984. KKCR aims to collect all cancer cases in Khon Kaen Province. The poorly qualified data may lead to distort the cancer burden and misinterpretation of policy maker. OBJECTIVE To assess data quality in childhood cancer between 1990 and 2007 in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data of childhood cancer cases aged less than 20 years diagnosed during 1990-2007 were retrieved from the population-based data set of KKCR. All childhood cancer data were verified before data entry. Internal consistency, percentage of morphological verification (MV%) and cancer cased of the basis of diagnosis by death certificate only (DCO%) were evaluated. The age-adjusted rate (ASR) was calculated by standard method. RESULTS The data of childhood cancer from KKCR is acceptably qualified which reflects the quality of the whole registration.