[The pitfalls of lung cancer coding practices based on the evaluation of the National Cancer Registry]. / A tüdorákhoz kötodo kódolási gyakorlat buktatói a Nemzeti Rákregiszter felmérése alapján.

The quality of input data determines the reliability of epidemiological assessments. Thus, the verification of cases reported to the National Cancer Registry is required. The objective of our study was evaluating the reliability of cases diagnosed by lung cancer, exploring the patterns of erroneous reports. The validation of the 11,750 lung cancer cases reported to the Cancer Registry in 2018 was performed with the involvement of the recording hospitals, analyzing the characteristics of reports by gender, age and attributes of the reporting institutions. 81.3 percent of the reported cases was confirmed, in 40.4 percent of the false reports, malignancy was not present at all. Among the erroneous cases women and the elderly age group were overrepresented. The highest deleted rate occurred in Borsod- Abaúj-Zemplén county. As a conclusion, there is a strong need for the improvement of the efficiency in encoding lung cancer. The most common errors: confusion of malignant-benign, cancerous-non-cancerous and primary-metastatic lesions. The reliability is not affected by the role of individual institutions in the hierarchy of health care. The availability of reliable epidemiological data is crucial in the fight against cancer, which requires broad professional cooperation.

The epidemiology of lung cancer in Hungary based on the characteristics of patients diagnosed in 2018.

Among malignant diseases, lung cancer has one of the highest mortality and incidence. Most epidemiological studies conclude that Hungary faces the most severe burden in association with this disease. However, for various reasons estimates and population-based studies show discrepancies. In this study, an intense data cleansing was performed on lung cancer cases that were reported to the Hungarian National Cancer Registry in 2018, and the major clinico-pathological parameters as well as survival characteristics were described. Our population-based figures were compared to the European estimates. As a result of our thorough revision, the corrected incidence of lung cancer has fallen below the number of cases that were reported to the Registry from 11,746 to 9,519. We also demonstrate that Hungary did not show the highest incidence and mortality in Europe, but it is still among the ones with the worst raking countries, with 92.9 and 50.6 age standardized rate per 100 thousand capita among males and females, respectively. Analysis of the annually reported case numbers revealed a gender-specific difference in incidence trends: while from 2001 to 2019 it slightly decreased among males, it increased among females. The most dominant subtype was adenocarcinoma, which was more frequent among female patients. Unfortunately, most of the newly diagnosed cases were in advanced stage; thus, 5 year overall survival was 14.8%. We anticipate that in the longer term, a decrease in incidence and improvement in survival rates may be expected as a result of the development of primary and secondary prevention programs in the country.

[Hungarian situation of melanoma incidence and mortality in the first two decades of 21st century]. / A melanóma hazai morbiditási és mortalitási helyzete a XXI. század elso két évtizedében.

Skin melanoma is not among malignancies with the highest incidences and mortalities worldwide; however, the observed constant increase in newly diagnosed cases is troublesome. According to the database of the Hungarian Cancer Registry, the number of newly reported cases doubled between 2001 and 2019, which is consistent with international data. Notwithstanding, within the same interval, Hungarian mortality did not change significantly according to the database of the Hungarian Statistical Office, which is in contrast to international trends. The increasing incidence together with unchanging mortality resulted in better survival rates and hence more favorable follow-up data in our country. Advancements in secondary prevention programs and better efficacy of modern therapeutic interventions in the last decade may have contributed to the observed improvement in the survival rates of Hungarian melanoma patients.