[Cancer trends and health care planning: toward a better use of cancer registries].

Cancer registries are instruments for cancer surveillance in the whole population. They provide information not only on the current burden of cancer, but--by projection from current occurrence rates and recent trends--on the likely future burden. Cancer risk is increasing in many developed countries, and increasing life expectancy in the next 10-30 years will have a disproportionate effect on the number of cancer patients at advanced ages. Cancer registries are the only type of organisation capable of providing information on cancer in the population as a whole, and of estimating recent trends and future risks of cancer on a national scale. At present, however, cancer registries in France appear not to be used to their full potential for the development of public health strategy. This may be because they have inadequate resources to produce the desired information, or perhaps simply because there is ignorance of their activity and potential. In order to improve the utility of cancer registries, it would be possible to use the British model of establishing service level agreements with the funding authorities. The objectives of such agreements include measures of the quality of data collected, and the extent to which useful information is derived. Simple measures of the volume of research published, while useful, are inadequate as the sole index of activity or criterion for funding. A fresh national strategy is required in France, in order to create a network of efficient cancer registries with stable funding. The long-term benefits in cancer control would be immense.