Trends in mortality for cancers, comparing multiple- and underlying-cause rates, in an English population 1979-1999.

ABSTRACT

In compiling official mortality statistics, rules for selecting the underlying cause of death have changed twice in the last 20 years in England. Mortality statistics for most types of cancer were not greatly affected, but there were significant effects on coding for cancers of colon, liver, breast, prostate, testis and bladder, and for lymphoma and leukaemia.