Comprehensive Registry in Japan

Abstract

We reviewed the history of the esophageal cancer registry in Japan. The Registration Committee for Esophageal Cancer, a part of the Japan Esophageal Society, has registered cases of esophageal cancer since 1976 and published the first issue of the Comprehensive Registry of Esophageal Cancer in Japan in 1979. The Act on the Protection of Personal Information was promulgated in 2003 and began to be enforced in 2005. The esophageal cancer registry required some improvements to comply with the Act. A new registration system was considered for several years and was finally completed in 2008. Specifically, “anonymity in an unlinkable fashion” using encryption with a “hash function” was introduced. Finally, the registry resumed registering esophageal cancer cases that had been treated in 2001. Here, we briefly summarize the Comprehensive Registry of Esophageal Cancer in Japan for the years 2001–2006. A total of 28,487 cases were registered from a total of 1,352 institutions in Japan. Histological diagnoses of biopsy specimens showed that squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma accounted for 88.7–92.9 % and 2.4–3.9 % of all the cases, respectively. The 5-year survival rates of patients treated using endoscopic mucosal resection, concurrent chemoradiotherapy, radiotherapy alone, chemotherapy alone, or esophagectomy were 80.0–87.7 %, 19.3–26.4 %, 15.1–30.0 %, 1.7–8.6 %, and 42.6–50.9 %, respectively. Concerning the approach used to perform an esophagectomy, 9.9–15.9 % of the cases were performed thoracoscopically. We hope that this Comprehensive Registry of Esophageal Cancer in Japan helps to improve all aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer.