Cancer Surveillance in Canada: Analysis of Legal and Policy Frameworks and Tools for Reform‪.‬

Introduction Progress in cancer prevention and treatment depends on the collection and analysis of reliable information about the incidence, risk factors, and progression of cancer in the Canadian population. Every jurisdiction in Canada has a public cancer registry, operated by a cancer agency or subsumed within another government department or ministry. (1) These registries contain comprehensive information about patients diagnosed with cancer, which are used for various analyses and reports. Those who operate cancer registries are responsible for maintaining data security and considering requests for access to information by various third party data users. Surveillance and research activities facilitated through cancer registries are recognized as having a compelling public health purpose, but they take place in a context that has become increasingly sensitive to the rights of individuals to protection of their personal information. Ensuring that personal privacy is adequately protected, while maximizing the use of relevant data for surveillance and research, is an important challenge.