Death clearance is a method used to ensure complete ascertainment of cancer cases in central registries.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (A)

Death clearance works by linking cancer registry data with death records to check for cases that may have been missed by routine reporting. By reviewing mortality databases and death certificates, registries can identify individuals who died of cancer without a recorded diagnosis in the registry or who had a cancer diagnosis that wasn’t captured through standard sources. This cross-checking acts as a quality control step that fills in gaps, thereby boosting the completeness of incident cancer data collected by central registries and improving the reliability of incidence and survival analyses. While death certificates aren’t perfect and rely on accurate cause-of-death coding, this method remains a core way to ensure that the registry captures as many cancer cases as possible.