Tools for Registries

JRC-ENCR Quality Check Software

In order to enable cancer registries to perform data quality checks and to test the adherence of their data to the required format of the ENCR-JRC data calls, starting from 2015 the JRC has been developing the JRC–ENCR Cancer Registries Data Quality Check Software (QCS).

The development of the QCS is an evolving process, with regular updates that ensures alignment with European and International recommendations and classifications.

The present Version 2.3.1 of the JRC-ENCR QCS is updated to the requirements of the revised ECIS data protocol and according to the rules of the revised ECIS Technical report. This new version benefits from the experience gathered in validation of data submitted from European registries in the ECIS data calls, and from registries’ feedback.

Complementary to the QCS, the CSV Data Structure Converter has been released in 2021 (for Windows operating systems) as an additional tool to facilitate the preparation of the incidence file according to the latest ECIS call for data protocol.

Version 2.3.1 of the JRC-ENCR Quality Check Software includes software upgrades and the revision of the data quality checklist, based on:

  • ECIS protocol “ Data protocol for the European Cancer Information System (ECIS)-November 2025”
  • ECIS Technical report “Data quality checks for validation of the ECIS database version 1.0”
  • Feedback received from CRs
  • ICD-O-3.2
  • TNM Edition 8

Version 2.3.1 main updates:

  • NEW multivariate checks for follow-up variables

  • NEW univariate check for staging variables (TNM)
  • NEW feature for running QCS in background as a service
  • Updates of univariate/multivariate checks
  • Graphic User Interface (GUI) improvements

Attention: Java software is needed to run the QCS. Please install Java JDK version 17 or later. If you need help in installing Java on your machine, kindly ask to your System Administrator or local IT support to install it for you.

For any software related issues please contact: JRC-ENCR@ec.europa.eu.

Tools and documents available for download:

CRATE aggregation tool for ECIS

CRATE (Cancer Registries Aggregation Tool for ECIS) is the R routine which aggregates record-level data from cancer registries’ datasets according to the dimensions considered in the European Cancer Information System (ECIS) web application for both the Historical data and for the Childhood data sections/studies. The input file of CRATE is record-level incidence data, organised according to the requirements of the ECIS data-call protocol and validated according to the rules detailed in the JRC Technical Report "Common data quality checks for European cancer registries", implemented in the JRC-ENCR Quality Check Software.

Tools available for download: 

CRATE tool

Stata macros for cancer incidence/mortality predictions

The suite of Stata (Version 8.0 or higher) macros for cancer incidence/mortality short-term predictions based on T. Hakulinen and T. Dyba method are available as a zipped file.

Once unzipped, please read the Word (or pdf) document help_pred_stata.doc to receive basic instructions on how to use the programs.

CanStaging+

CanStaging+ is a tool developed by a collaboration between the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) ), and Cancer Council Queensland (CCQ). The tool is designed to help maximise the availability, standardisation and comparability of cancer staging internationally.

The tool available here, provides automatic calculation of the international TNM staging classification versions 7 and 8 for a variety of tumour sites – breast, cervix, liver, lung, oesophagus, ovary, pancreas, prostate and stomach. Colorectal cancer may be staged using the TNM staging versions 5 and 8. The Tool also provides automatic calculation of stage for childhood cancers using the business rules developed for the Toronto Paediatric Cancer Stage Guidelines.