The first population-based cancer registry was set up in Hamburg (Germany) in 1926. Three nurses visited hospitals and medical practitioners in the city at regular intervals. They recorded the names of new cancer patients and transferred data to a central index in the health department. This index was compared once a week with official death certificates. Other popu- lation-based cancer registries were set up in subsequent decades, so that by 1955, almost twenty had been established in various countries
