Skin cancer registry data may greatly underestimate cases

EDITOR,—Clive Richards and colleagues highlight the problem of underregistration of skin cancer: when they compared the South Western Cancer Registry's data with data obtained direct from pathology departments they found that the registry had missed 13% of cases of malignant melanoma.1 It is known that many cancer registries do not obtain data from all possible sources, including pathology laboratories and outpatient departments.2

John N Newton and Julia Redburn show that registration of malignant melanoma in women fell dramatically from …