The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 25 June 2008:"As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed, and how many deaths from prostate cancer there were, in each strategic health authority region in each of the last 11 years. (212813)""The most recent available figures for cancer incidence are for 2005. Figures requested are given in Table 1 below. The most recent available figures for cancer deaths are for 2006. Figures requested are given in Table 2 below." Table 1: Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of prostate cancer¹, males, by Strategic health authority, 1995 to 2005 SHA 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 England 19,473 19,866 19,878 20,375 22,203 24,256 27,380 27,672 27,777 29,406 28,886 North East 771 861 887 1,063 1,229 1,243 1,407 1,389 1,475 1,321 1,403 Northwest 2,733 2,839 2,554 2,626 2,843 3,096 3,651 3,525 3,637 4,468 4,293 Yorkshire and the Humber 1,730 1,784 1,857 1,818 1,923 2,372 2,631 2,598 2,639 2,909 2,729 East Midlands 1,495 1,601 1,465 1,531 1,747 1,939 2,115 2,136 2,090 2,415 2,619 West Midlands 2,035 2,144 2,085 2,247 2,411 2,723 3,076 3,235 3,249 3,377 3,350 East of England 2,283 2,396 2,247 2,266 2,609 2,938 3,192 3,270 3,194 3,164 3,453 London 2,449 2,400 2,593 2,661 2,742 2,797 3,074 3,115 3,062 3,012 2,875 South East Coast 2,078 1,889 2,081 1,997 2,225 2,289 2,441 2,302 2,270 2,268 2,317 South Central 1,543 1,549 1,480 1,632 1,808 2,038 2,349 2,361 2,334 2,484 2,169 South West 2,356 2,403 2,629 2,534 2,666 2,821 3,444 3,741 3,827 3,988 3,678 ¹ Prostate cancer is coded to C61 in the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) Source: Office for National Statistics Table 2: Number of deaths where prostate cancer was the underlying cause of death, males, by strategic health authority¹,1996 to 2006² SHA 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 England 8,256 7,982 8,074 8,015 7,761 8,305 8,471 8,570 8,531 8,492 8,506 North East 356 368 386 374 352 383 413 401 457 392 466 North West 1,045 1,031 1,047 1,041 1,064 1,127 1,077 1,053 1,062 1,109 1,016 Yorkshire and the Humber 801 810 755 789 770 756 784 890 856 795 858 East Midlands 702 701 694 678 685 687 732 781 762 755 757 West Midlands 865 851 884 865 835 955 910 948 930 889 960 East of England 948 870 894 905 905 997 1,074 1,000 1,017 1,015 1,040 London 970 878 891 910 798 930 929 890 939 953 850 South East Coast 882 832 851 831 779 830 883 896 766 804 811 South Central 633 602 625 632 567 620 643 638 665 652 681 South West 1,054 1,039 1,047 990 1,006 1,020 1,026 1,073 1,077 1,128 1,067 ¹ Prostate cancer was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 185 for the years 1996 to 2000, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code C61 for the years 2001 to 2006. The introduction of ICD-10 in 2001 had a significant effect on mortality rates for some diseases, causing a discontinuity in mortality trends for these causes of death. However ONS practice is not to adjust the historical numbers of deaths shown in PQ answers. More information on this issue can be found at www.statistics.gov.uk/icd10mortality. For prostate cancer, the introduction of ICD-10 caused an increase of 3.8 per cent. in the number of deaths. An article specifically examining the changes for cancer trends was published in Health Statistics Quarterly 23*. This article also presents comparability ratios (the ratio of the number of deaths coded to a cause in ICD-10 to the number coded to the equivalent cause in ICD-9) for the most common cancer sites. * Brock A, Griffiths C, Rooney C (2004) The effect of the introduction of ICD-10 on cancer mortality trends in England and Wales. Health Statistics Quarterly 23, 7-17. ² Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.