Deutsche Krebsregister e.V. (DKR) / German Cancer Registries (GNCR)

(formerly kown as Association of Population-based Cancer Registries in Germany (GEKID))

History

Cancer registration in Germany has a long tradition and can be traced back to the year 1900. The first cancer registry was founded in Hamburg in 1927. In the following decades, cancer registration was continuously expanded. In the 1990s, the first federal law made population-based cancer registration mandatory in all federal states. In 1996, the first interest group for population-based cancer registration was the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bevölkerungsbezogener Krebsregister Deutschlands (ABKD), in which all epidemiological cancer registries in Germany and the Robert Koch Institute’s umbrella cancer registry worked together. This working group was also associated with the Federal Government’s overall programme to combat cancer at the time.

In April 2004, the ABKD was transformed into an association, the Gesellschaft der epidemiologischen Krebsregister in Deutschland e. V. (GEKID).

Thanks in part to the commitment of the German Cancer Society, German Cancer Aid and the Association of German Tumour Centres, the 2008 National Cancer Plan called for comprehensive clinical cancer registration. The German Cancer Early Detection and Registry Act (Krebsfrüherkennungs- und registergesetz), or Section 65c SGB V, made such comprehensive clinical cancer registration mandatory in 2013. In 2015, the Conference of Health Ministers set up an expert committee for this task – Platform 65c – which supports the harmonisation and expansion of uniform and comprehensive clinical cancer registration in Germany.

In order to represent population-based cancer registration in Germany, which today comprises clinical and epidemiological cancer registration, and its interests as a whole, the existing structures of the GEKID were supplemented in such a way as to ensure uniform and standardised cancer registration in Germany and data use. To take account of this development, the association updated its statutes in April 2024 and gave itself a new name: German Cancer Registry e.V. (DKR / GNCR).

In the future, the GNCR will continue to make important contributions to the assessment of cancer incidence, the evaluation and improvement of the quality of oncological care and the promotion of the use of cancer registry data for research.

Tasks

The primary task of the German Cancer Registry e.V. is to achieve extensive methodological uniformity nationwide through content standards and to strengthen cooperation between the cancer registries and other stakeholders, despite increasingly harmonised state regulations. The comparability of the results of the cancer registries can only be guaranteed through nationwide cooperation between all those involved and thus the cancer registry can contribute to improving the quality of oncological care and research. The DKR sees itself as the cancer registries’ point of contact for transnational issues and registry-related cancer research.

Aims

  • Use of cancer registry data for quality assurance in oncological care and for health services research
  • Promotion of the scientific utilisation of population-based cancer registries
  • Initiation of joint research activities
  • Preparation and publication of the results of cancer registration in Germany
  • Contact for national and international co-operation partners as well as for the interested public
  • Representation of the cancer registries within the framework of the National Cancer Plan
  • Providing information on the status of cancer registration in Germany and communicating the objectives of cancer registration
  • Contributing to ensuring the completeness of the individual cancer registries through joint information activities
  • Definition of content standards as a basis for the comparability of cancer registries
  • Coordination of cross-registry tasks and projects