Are “immortals” an issue for survival estimates derived from Canadian Cancer Registry data?

Description: The validity of survival estimates from cancer registry data depends, in part, on the identification of the deaths of deceased cancer patients. People whose deaths are missed seemingly live on forever and are informally referred to as “immortals”, and their presence in registry data can result in inflated survival estimates. This study assesses the issue of immortals in the Canadian Cancer Registry (CCR) using a recently proposed method that compares the survival of long-term survivors of cancers for which “statistical” cure has been reported with that of similar people from the general population.

Issue Number: 2023012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202301200002-eng