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Scottish Cancer Registry - Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR06)

Summary

Abstract

Public Health Scotland is responsible for the collection of information on Scottish residents when they are diagnosed with malignant (and some benign) tumours.

Keywords

Health Tumour Oncology Scotland HDRUK Cancer

Publisher

  • Identifier
  • Name
    Public Health Scotland
  • Logo
  • Description
    Public Health Scotland is an NHS Board that is uniquely sponsored by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) on behalf of local government.
  • Contact point

Documentation

Description

The registry began in 1958 collecting personal, demographic and diagnosis information (such as site, histology, behaviour, histological confirmation and hospital of diagnosis) from cancer patients. In 1997, a new electronic cancer recording system was launched and at this point the registry was extended to include extra information on tumour stage (for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer), tumour grade and treatment information. The dataset also includes geographical data.
  • Associated media

    • Available resource files can be downloaded below.

      File name

      2026 06 Cancer Registry Data Definitions V1

      Type

      .PDF

  • Is part of
    • Not available

Coverage

Spatial

  • Spatial coverage

    United Kingdom, Scotland

  • Geographic levels
    Not available

Temporal

  • Start date
    01/01/1981
  • End date
    31/03/2025
  • Frequency
    Annual
  • Distribution release date
    31/03/2025

Provenance

  • Purpose
    Care
  • Source
    Epr
  • Collection situation
    Primary care - Referrals, Primary care - Clinic, Secondary care - Outpatients, Secondary care - In-patients

Access and governance

  • Conditions of access
    General research use, Project-specific restrictions, Research-specific restrictions

Requesting access to this data

This is a secure dataset that can only be accessed by researchers from approved organisations.

Find out how to apply to access this dataset

Usage

  • Conditions of use
    Disclosure control, Institution-specific restrictions, Not for profit use
  • Resource creator
    Public Health Scotland
  • Is referenced by
    Not available

Access

Format and standards

  • Language
    English
  • Format
    Text, csv

Enrichment and linkage

  • Related datasets
    • Not available
  • Linkage opportunity
    Not available
  • Tools
    • Not available

Synthetic data

Synthetic data is not yet available for this dataset. 

Data dictionary

Information on Scottish residents when they are diagnosed with malignant (and some benign) tumours. For more information on each variable, see https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/39133/2026-06-cancer-registry-data-definitions-v1.pdf

MONTH AND YEAR OF BIRTH

Month and year of birth

AGE_INCIDENCE

Age in years at incidence date

SEX

Sex (gender) of the patient. The person’s state of being male or female. For those who h...

DATE_OF_DEATH

Date of patient’s death. May be entered by the Cancer Information Officer (CIO) if not o...

CAUSE_1

Primary cause of death, obtained through NRS linkage. This is coded using ICD9 for dates...

CAUSE_2

Other causes of death, obtained through NRS linkage. Coded using ICD9 for dates of death...

CAUSE_3

As above

CAUSE_4

As above

DEATH_CERTIFICATE_INITIATED

Indicates that the case has first come to light only as the result of a death, as assess...

DEATH_CERTIFICATE_ONLY

Indicates that the case has been registered from the death certificate only, since no ot...

Variable description

Data type
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