How complete are Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry data?
State law requires that every cancer diagnosis made in California from 1988 onward be reported. The exceptions are the common skin cancers (basal and squamous cell carcinomas) and certain non-invasive cancerous conditions of the uterine cervix. The Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, as well as the cancer registrars and others who collect cancer data for the GBACR, all make a major effort to ensure that the data are as accurate and complete as possible. The level of completeness increases with time, and statistical summaries of the data from a given year are not released until the data are estimated to be at least 95% complete.
