​The National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) Intelligence Network (NCIN) within Public Health England (formerly the National Cancer Intelligence Network and before that the South West Cancer Intelligence Service) has assisted the cancer registration process for the Channel Islands since January 1996.

This is the 12th report from this service to incorporate data for Jersey and Guernsey and is an update using local 2012 to 2016 data for cancer incidence (new cases) and mortality. 

Information is provided on the age-standardised rates of incident (newly diagnosed) cancer and deaths from cancer for 21 cancer types / sites by three year rolling averages and for the latest five years available (2012 to 2016). Comparative data for Guernsey, the South West of England and, for the whole of England, is provided for comparison.

The report highlights those cancers which have a high or low rate compared to England or the South West based on aggregated data for 2012 to 2016. Counts and rates for this are for a five year period for those aged 20 years and older.

The report also provides rates over time (since 2004) for each specific adult (20 and over) cancer type using counts and rates for three year periods. All paediatric cancers (0 to 19 years) are reported on separately. No breakdown of the paediatric cancer types is provided due to the very small annual numbers reported. 

Note on using Age Standardised rates (ASR's)

Rates in the report have been produced using the 2013 European Standard Population (2013 ESP) which allows for rates between jurisdictions to be compared by removing any age structure differences in the population. This is the second report in the series to use this new standard, so it is important that rates are not compared to those in reports earlier than the Channel Islands Cancer Registration Report 2017 . Previous reports used the 1976 standard population.

The age-standardised rates are produced for the population aged 20 years and over and are thus not comparable to those calculated for all ages in the population. 

The age-standardised rates are also not comparable to rates calculated using other standard populations (such as the World Standard Population or the average England population).

 It is important that any rate comparisons are made on a like-for-like basis.