This book is a compilation and discussion of data on the survival of cancer patients in 12 European countries. Measures of incidence, survival and mortality are critical to the interpretation of data on progress in the fight against cancer, and in the evaluation of the overall effectiveness of cancer control programmes. Randomized controlled clinical trials have shown many modern protocols for cancer treatment to be more effective than earlier treatments, but until now, comparable population-based survival figures have raraly been available. EUROCARE is a concerted action among European cancer registries, aimed at estimating and comparing the survival of cancer patients in different European populations. The rationale behind this project is to optimize the comparability of survival data by using an agreed and standard definition of the diseases for which survival is to be compared, and by taking due account of basic demographic variables. The EUROCARE Working Group succeeded in collecting, checking and editing data on cancer survival from 30 cancer registries in 12 countries, and established a database covering some 800,000 cancer patients in the period 1978-85 and followed up to the end of 1990. This database forms the raw material for this monograph.