Belgian Cancer Registry (breast and lung cancer)

07/07/2026
07/07/2026
Data source
Human
Cancer registry
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Access and validation

Governance details

Documents or webpages that describe the overall governance of the data source and processes and procedures for data capture and management, data quality check and validation results (governing data access or utilisation for research purposes).

Biospecimen access

Are biospecimens available in the data source (e.g., tissue samples)?

No

Access to subject details

Can individual patients/practitioners/practices included in the data source be contacted?

No

Description of data collection

The cancer registration database is created based on notifications on all new cancer diagnoses that are provided by oncological care programs (hospital network), and the laboratories of pathological anatomy (laboratory network). For this initial OMOP mapping, only breast and lung cancer diagnoses are included for incidence years 2014–2023.
The BCR database can be deterministically linked to multiple other datasets using the national social security number (INSZ-NISS) as a unique patient identifier. Performed linkages for this initial OMOP mapping include:
• Vital status information
• Health insurance reimbursement data (drugs, surgery, radiotherapy)
Event triggering registration

Event triggering registration of a person in the data source

Disease diagnosis

Event triggering de-registration of a person in the data source

Death
Loss to follow up

Event triggering creation of a record in the data source

Registration of a new diagnosis by an oncological care programs (hospital network) or a positive sample for a cancer diagnosis in a pathological laboratory. In our dataset, only breast cancer and lung cancer are currently available for incidence years 2014 - 2023.
Data source linkage

Linkage

Is the data source described created by the linkage of other data sources (prelinked data source) and/or can the data source be linked to other data source on an ad-hoc basis?

Yes

Linkage description, pre-linked

• Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS) --> Vital status information
• Health insurance reimbursement data from the InterMutualistic Agency (drugs, surgery, radiotherapy)

Linked data source 1

Pre linked

Is the data source described created by the linkage of other data sources?

No

Linkage strategy

Deterministic

Linkage variable

National Social Security Number (INSZ-NISS) as a unique patient identifier
Data management specifications that apply for the data source

Data source refresh

Yearly

Possibility of data validation

Can validity of the data in the data source be verified (e.g., access to original medical charts)?

Yes

Data source preservation

Are records preserved in the data source indefinitely?

No

Approval for publication

Is an approval needed for publishing the results of a study using the data source?

No

Data source last refresh

Common Data Model (CDM) mapping

CDM mapping

Has the data source been converted (ETL-ed) to a common data model?

Yes

CDM Mappings

Data source ETL CDM version

v5.4

Data source ETL status

In progress