The use of tumor registry data.

The End Results Group, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, coordinates a national cooperative program for evaluating the results of cancer therapy. Three central tumor registries (in California, Connecticut and Massachusetts) plus nine individual hospital registries (in university hospitals) are participating in the program. During the period 1940-59, there was an encouraging increase in five-year survival rates among patients with carcinomas and sarcomas (solid tumors). Preliminary data for 1955-59 suggest that the upward trend is leveling off. A smaller absolute increase in five-year survival rates occurred among patients with lymphomas and leukemia. These increases in patient survival rates coincided with more frequent use of surgical operation for solid tumors and more frequent use of chemotherapy for lymphomas and leukemia.