Exploring patterns and trends with selected cancer rates reported by China National Cancer Registry: alternative perspectives and findings.

Background: National cancer registration reports provide huge potential for identifying patterns and trends of policy, research, prevention and treatment significance. Yet given the range of factors involved in cancer onset, case identification, progression and reporting, pin-pointing this complexity requires systematic thinking and varied strategies of data analysis. Methods: The study extracts data about incidence rates (IRs) and mortality rates (MRs) of lung, stomach, colorectal and liver cancers for 2004, 2006 and 2009 from relevant China National Original Research Article