NPCR Standards

All grantees funded by CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) are expected to meet established NPCR standards. [PDF-227KB] One standard requires state central registries to submit de-identified cancer data to CDC. Annually, these data are evaluated for quality, completeness, and timeliness according to the National Data Quality Standard for 23-month data and the Advanced National Data Quality Standard for 12-month data. Data also are evaluated according to the USCS Publication Standard before publication.

National Data Quality Standard

Data being evaluated for the National Data Quality Standard (formerly known as the 24-Month Standard) must meet the following five data quality criteria—

1. Data are 95% complete based on observed-to-expected cases computed by CDC.
2. There are 3% or fewer death-certificate-only cases.
3. There is a 1 per 1,000 or fewer unresolved duplicate rate.
4. The maximum percent missing critical data elements are—
   1. 2% Age
   2. 2% Sex
   3. 3% Race
   4. 2% County
5. 99% pass a CDC-prescribed set of standard edits.

Advanced National Data Quality Standard

Data being evaluated for the Advanced National Data Quality Standard (formerly known as the 12-Month Standard) must meet the following four data quality criteria—

1. Data are 90% complete based on observed-to-expected cases computed by CDC.
2. There is a 2 per 1,000 or fewer unresolved duplicate rate.
3. The maximum percent missing critical data elements are—
   1. 3% Age
   2. 3% Sex
   3. 5% Race
   4. 3% County
4. 97% pass a CDC-prescribed set of standard edits.

USCS Publication Standard

To be included in the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) data publication, cancer incidence data from statewide or metropolitan area cancer registries must meet the following data quality criteria for all cancer sites combined—

• Case ascertainment.

  After years of analyzing completeness of case ascertainment, CDC has determined that NPCR registries consistently deliver high quality, complete data. Completeness of case ascertainment calculations has been discontinued as a measure of eligibility for publication. The data quality criteria—missing/unknown data, death certificate only percentage, duplicate rate, and percent records passing edits—will continue to be used in determining meeting or not meeting publication criteria. Even though the completeness estimate will no longer be a criterion for USCS, it will continue to be used to monitor and evaluate progress in meeting NPCR Program Standards.

  Because some cancer patients receive diagnostic or treatment services at more than one reporting facility, cancer registries perform a procedure known as “unduplication” to ensure that each cancer case is counted only once.

• No more than 5% of cases are ascertained solely on the basis of a death certificate.
• No more than 3% of cases are missing information on age.
• No more than 3% of cases are missing information on sex.
• No more than 5% of cases are missing information on race.
• At least 97% of the registry’s records passed a set of single-field and interfield computerized edits. Computerized edits are computer programs that test the validity and logic of data components. For example, if an 80-year-old patient was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and the patient’s year of birth was reported as 1942, a computerized edit could identify these facts as incompatible.

  The computerized edits applied to the data in this report were designed by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program for use by SEER registries. During the 1990s, these edits were expanded and incorporated into NAACCR standards and into the NPCR–EDITS software designed and maintained by CDC.

*Only critical single-field and inter-field edits were evaluated for submissions prior to 2005. In 2005, critical edits were reclassified as core edits. For submission years after 2005, core single-field, inter-field, and inter-record edits were evaluated.

For the NPCR National Data Quality Standard and the NPCR Advanced National Data Quality Standard, the measurement error for completeness of case ascertainment is -1.0%, and the measurement error for records missing age, sex, race, or county is -4.0%. Following review by CDC, the measurement error allowed for case ascertainment may vary.