International Comparability of Coding Cancer Data: Present State and Possible Improvement by ICD-10

Abstract

In 1948 the International Classification of Diseases, Sixth Revision (ICD-6) (World Health Organization 1948), was published in a considerably different format than had been used for the first 50 years. The preface of this ICD outlining its objective reads: “It is merely the synthesis of the experiences of different countries using the International list and the logical conclusion of the continuous efforts of the past decades towards internationally comparable statistics relating to causes of illness and death.” In the present volume cancer mortality and morbidity, cancer mapping, and cancer atlases of these statistics have been discussed. However, are these statistics really comparable?

This paper has also been published in the “American Journal of Epidemiology”.