This is a talk in the RSS Northern Ireland Local Group seminar series.
Lung Cancer Incidence, Survival and Treatment in Northern Ireland: a retrospective
Professor Gilbert MacKenzie (formerly of UL, ROI, and ENSAI, Fr.)
Abstract
This talk deals with the Northern Ireland Lung Cancer Study (NILCS), the first population-based, multi-source, study of incidence (new cases), conducted in 1991/92. At that time, Cancer Registration had not been introduced and Northern Ireland relied on a Notification System which was believed to be incomplete.
We report the basic results of the study and compare the incidence rate in Northern Ireland with rates elsewhere in the British Isles in 1991/92, and subsequently, by considering the regional trends observed over the last 30 years.
Incident cases in the NICLS study were followed-up for two years. The effect of treatment on survival was evaluated using a MPR regression model which is wholly parametric and has a non-proportional hazard function. Adjusted treatment effects were computed and we discuss the results of this analysis, recalling the observational nature of the data. The findings are contrasted with NICE Lung Cancer Guideline (2010).
A treatment model for the NILCS was constructed in order to determine: "who received curative treatment and why", and, whether treatment allocation was consistent with the survival model? The structure and performance of this logistic model was evaluated in terms of months of life lost.
The findings highlight a number of different problem areas and the need for futher research.
Professor Gilbert MacKenzie
(formerly of UL, ROI, and ENSAI, Fr.)