Completeness of non-malignant intracranial and CNS tumors

The New York State Cancer Registry (NYSCR) has systematically collected non-malignant intracranial and central nervous system tumors (CNS) since 1988. Since we never included these cases in our annual statistics, we had not previously assessed the completeness of them. After linking NYSCR files to 2002 and 2003 hospital discharge data to assess completeness, we found an unusually high proportion of potentially unreported benign/uncertain behavior intracranial and CNS tumors as compared to other unreported primary sites for both years. Identification of specific casefinding issues and additional training are necessary to rectify this problem.