Cancer care and public health policy evaluations in France: Usefulness of the national cancer cohort

• Published in: PloS one 2018-10, Vol.13 (10), p.e0206448-e0206448
• Main Authors: Bousquet, Philippe Jean, Lefeuvre, Delphine, Tuppin, Philippe, BenDiane, Marc Karim, Rocchi, Mathieu, Bouée-Benhamiche, Elsa, Viguier, Jérôme, Le Bihan-Benjamin, Christine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Algorithms; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Cohort Studies; Colon; Colorectal cancer; Female; France; Health care; Health care policy; Health Policy; Hospitals; Humans; Life Sciences; Lung cancer; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - economics; Patient Care - statistics & numerical data; People and places; Population; Prostate; Public health; Radiation therapy; Rectum; Registries - statistics & numerical data; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Skin; Social Sciences; Studies; Surgery; Womens health; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206448

In the context of the national Cancer Plans of France that have changed the healthcare landscape, it has become necessary to better document and assess the related actions, and to promote research and understanding. The national cancer cohort, an exhaustive population-based cohort, was set up on the basis of the National Health Data System (SNDS) by the French National Cancer Institute. The aim is to describe the French national cancer cohort. All people living in France (67 million population) with universal insurance coverage and diagnosed, treated or followed up for a cancer, such as survivors, are included and will be followed up for 25 years. It contains all healthcare consumptions and reimbursements (i.e. hospitalization, outpatient care, medication…) since 2010. Every year, around 650 000 new cases are included. From 2010 to 2015, 6.2 million subjects have been included. Most subjects were entered in 2010, in 2015 it concerned 0.6 million. In 2015, the median age was 65 [54-76]; 51% were women. The primary cancer organ could be attributed with certitude to 87% of the people. The most frequent locations were skin (16%), breast (15%), prostate (12%), colon-rectum (11%) and lung (9%). In 2015, 40% of included subjects underwent surgery for cancer, 16% chemotherapy at hospital and 11% at least one session of radiotherapy. Based on SNDS, the cancer cohort has been designed to study cancer care use in the short-, medium- and long-term, and evaluate healthcare and public health policies.