This section of the website presents incidence rates for all sites of cancer for the years 1979-1996. Age-adjusted rates are found in Table 1 and age-specific rates are found in Table 2.

Below are questions and answers about these tables. If you have other questions, you are welcome to contact us at (609)588-3500.

1) What is cancer?
A group of 100 diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells.

2) What is the New Jersey State Cancer Registry?
The New Jersey State Cancer Registry (NJSCR) collects information on all new cases of cancer diagnosed since October 1978 among people living in New Jersey at the time of diagnosis. Over 40,000 cases are reported to the Registry each year.

3) Why does the NJSCR collect this information?
Data on cancer patterns in the population can be very useful for preventing and controlling cancer. Early detection programs, such as for cervical, breast, and colon cancers, use these data to plan screening services so that cancers can be detected early and treatments can be less difficult for the patient and more likely to improve survival. Health care providers use these data for planning and researchers use these data for studying ways to increase survival and identify risk factors. The Registry also facilitates professional education and public education. The data are used to respond to New Jersey residents on cancer issues and concerns. Also, the incidence rates in New Jersey are shared and compared with other states and the nation. In sum, the data collected by the NJSCR can be useful for describing cancer patterns in the population, discovering causes of cancer, planning programs for people affected with cancer, and other related research.

4) How does the Registry obtain the information on people diagnosed with cancer?
Reports are submitted by hospitals, physicians, dentists, and independent laboratories. In addition, reporting agreements are maintained with neighboring states so that New Jersey residents diagnosed in facilities out of state are identified.

5) How long does it take for a cancer diagnosis to be entered into the Registry?
New Jersey law requires that in-state hospitals report all new cases within six months of diagnosis. Out of state hospitals are not covered by the law, but we do received data from hospitals in nearby states, as well as Florida. After that, all data must be carefully checked and processed by the NJSCR. Therefore, it usually takes from 12 to 18 months after diagnosis for the information on new cases to be available for statistical analysis.

6) How complete is the Registry?
Using standard methods for estimating completeness, the NJSCR is over 99% complete for the years 1979-1996.

7) Are the cancer data confidential?
Cancer and other medical information collected by the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services are confidential under law. All reports which are issued, including this website, group data together so that no individual can be identified. If there are less than five persons in the same group (such as the same age, sex, year of diagnosis and type of cancer) then the actual number is not revealed.

8) Are there any types of cancer which are not collected?
Cervical cancer "in situ", is not required to be reported to the Registry, and are not included in the statistics. Certain skin cancers are not reportable unless they are diagnosed at an advanced stage.

9) What is an "incidence rate"?
The term "incidence" refers to the number of newly diagnosed cases of a disease occurring in a specific population during a specific time period. The incidence rate is the number of newly diagnosed cases in a specific population during a specific time period per "x" number of people; usually the time period is one year and "x" number of people is 100,000. Such an incidence rate is "crude", is not age adjusted (see #11 below) and therefore cannot be used to compare different populations.

Cancer is an age-related disease, and typically, the incidence rate of different types of cancer increases with age. The incidence rate described above is called "non-age-adjusted" or "crude" because it does not take account of the age distribution and cannot be used to compare rates among populations with different age distributions. Comparisons can only be made after taking into account the different proportions of the population in each age group.

10) What is an "age-specific" incidence rate?
An age-specific incidence rate is the number of newly diagnosed cases of a disease in a specific age group in a particular population over a specified time period per "x" number of people in that age group. Typically, five-year age groups (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, etc.) are used. The time period is usually one year and the "x" number of people in the specific age group is usually 100,000.

11) What is an "age-adjusted" incidence rate?
An age-adjusted rate is different from a crude rate in that the incidence rate is modified to take into account how the age distribution of the population of interest varies from a conventionally-used "standard population". It is important that the same standard population be used so that age-adjusted rates can be compared to each other. The U.S. 1970 population has been used as a standard for many years, and the U.S. 2000 population will soon be used as the standard. Age-adjustment enables us to compare cancer rates among different countries, states, or counties.

12) Why are male and female rates shown separately?
Men and women experience different cancer patterns. Some of the most common cancers occur in organs which are present only in either males (e.g. prostate) or females (e.g. ovary or cervix). Even among other types of cancer (such as lung), there can be large differences in the rates among males and females. It is standard practice to report rates separately for the two genders.

13) Are data available for smaller geographic units, such as county and town?
County rates for the years of the New Jersey State Cancer Registry are currently available through 1996. See the county report. Municipality rates are not currently available. The first step in generating municipal rates will be geocoding the NJSCR data, a process which is in the planning stage. Municipality rates may be available in forthcoming years.

14) When will these data be updated with additional years?
We expect that early in 2000 the 1997 cancer incidence data will be available at this site. Later in 2000, 1998 cancer incidence data will also be available.

15) Why are there more sites of cancer included at this website than in recent reports by the Department?
Most reports by the Department of Health and Senior Services focus on specific cancers and/or group together cancers which occur in related parts of the body. For example, cancers of the oral and pharynx region are usually presented only in combination. But at this website, each of the individual sites are shown separately, even though some of them are quite rare. The purpose of the more detailed information is to enable citizens and researchers to have access to these details.

16) How can I obtain data on cancer mortality (deaths from cancer)?
Similar data on deaths from cancer can be obtained for the years 1987-1996 from the Center for Health Statistics website: www.state.nj.us/health/chs/stats96/mort4.htm

17) Where can I get more information about cancer data in New Jersey?
Reports published by Cancer Epidemiology Services may be obtained directly from us or may be found on our website at www.state.nj.us/health/cancer/njscr1b.htm

18) Where can I get more information about prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer?
The American Cancer Society can be reached by phone at 1-800-ACS-2345. Their website address is www.cancer.org. The National Cancer Institute can be reached at 1-800-4CANCER and their website address is www.nci.nih.gov. The website address for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is www.cdc.gov/health/cancer.htm and their email address is cancerinfo@cdc.gov.