The need for a rapid and comprehensive adoption of the revised European standard population in cancer incidence comparisons

Abstract

As cancer incidence varies according to age, it is important to rule out differences in age structures in any comparison. A common way of adjusting for these differences is using direct age standardization, which applies age-specific weights from a standard population. Eurostat has recently introduced a revised European standard population (RESP). The effect of using the new standard, in comparison with that introduced in 1976 [European standard population (ESP)], is evaluated. Cancer incidence data for prostate and testis cancer for Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland from the NORDCAN web site, and for Ireland and Italy-Genoa from Cancer Incidence in five Continents-X, were analyzed. Incidence rates were directly age standardized using ESP and RESP. The RESP conferred greater weight to adults and the elderly than the ESP. For prostate cancer, age-standardized rates computed with RESP are consistently higher by between 50 and 60% than those computed with ESP. However, the use of RESP, instead of ESP, has little impact on the pattern of time trends, the relative ranking of countries, the values of relative risks, or the percentage differences between age-standardized rates. For testis cancer, RESP and ESP provide very similar results because this cancer is more common in young men. Both ESP and RESP are in circulation. It is, therefore, important that European cancer registries reach consensus on a single standard to use to avoid erroneous comparisons of data computed with different standards. Given that Eurostat recently introduced RESP and is using this standard for data collected from the European Union Member States, it would make sense to rally behind RESP.

Incidence, aetiology and related comorbidities of cirrhosis: a Swedish population-based cohort study

“…The 2013 ESP calculated ASIR were also very similar to the crude annual incidence rates (Table 2). A comparison between the 1976 ESP and the 2013 ESP has shown that the latter is more representative for old and very old individuals (75+ years) and has no major impact on incidence rates estimated for younger individuals [19].…”

Trends in incidence, diagnosis, treatment and survival of hepatocellular carcinoma in a low-incidence country: Data from the Netherlands in the period 2009–2016

“…Annual incidence rates were age standardised per 100,000 person years to the European standard population (1976) and the Revised European standard population (2013), resulting in the (Revised) European Standardised Rate ((R)ESR). Because of the ageing European Population, older persons receive a higher weighting in the RESR compared with the ESR [11]. We provide both rates to enable comparisons with previous and future literature.…”

The European cancer burden in 2020: Incidence and mortality estimates for 40 countries and 25 major cancers

“…The estimates for 2020 are presented as numbers of new cases and numbers of deaths and corresponding age-standardised rates (ASRs) for incidence and mortality using the European standard population 2013 [ 31 , 32 ] expressed per 100,000 individuals. The cumulative risk of a cancer diagnosis or cancer death was also calculated, considering a lifetime as across the age range 0–74 years, expressed as a percentage.…”