Portugal
Cancer Centers
Healthcare System
Portugal provides universal healthcare to all its residents, including the unemployed and illegal immigrants. There are also health insurance schemes that provide coverage for specific sectors, both public and private. Citizens can also opt for private health insurance schemes. The system providing healthcare in Portugal is called Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS), managed by the Ministry of Health, and is mainly funded through general taxation, but a third of its funding comes from the private sector such as out-of-pocket payments via co-funding or direct payment by the patient.
Primary care in Portugal is delivered through a combination of public and private healthcare providers, with the National Health Service (NHS) primarily offering primary and acute general and specialized hospital care. While dental consultations, diagnostic services, renal dialysis, and rehabilitation services are mostly offered by private healthcare providers, these services are often funded by the government under contractual agreements with the NHS. Secondary and tertiary care is mainly provided in hospitals organized into Hospital Centres based on geographical location.
Portugal's main statistical authority is the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), responsible for the production and dissemination of official statistics that ensure the supervision and the technical and scientific coordination of the National Statistical System.
Administrative or Claims Data
Registries
Database: Mortality by Malignant Neoplasms
Primary purpose: Provide information regarding the national mortality and its social and demographic distribution.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE).
Type of information: Number of deaths filtered by data reference period, region of residence, sex, age group, and death cause (malignant neoplasms).
The following indicators are also available and can be filtered by sex and region of residence:
- Potential years of life lost by type of cancer.
- Rate of potential years of life lost by type of cancer.
- Mortality rate (per 100 000 inhabitants or in percentage) by type of cancer.
- Standardized mortality rate (per 100 000 inhabitants) by type of cancer.
- Standardized mortality rate (per 100 000 inhabitants) by type of cancer regarding people 65 years of age and older.
- Standardized mortality rate (per 100 000 inhabitants) by type of cancer regarding people younger than 65 years of age.
The list of variables included in Patient level data is longer and can be checked in this website.
Source of information: Data collection through the notary offices and registered in the Integrated System for Civil Registration and Identification (SIRIC).
Data level: Regional level (open access) and Patient level (restricted access).
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: Regional level (2002 onwards) and Patient level (1998 onwards).
Cancer Areas of Interest: To be added.
Data access: Regional level data is openly available here. To ask for patient level data, follow the instructions presented in this webpage.
Information/contact for data request: Contact information.
Database: National Health Interview Survey (INS)
[3]
Primary purpose: Publish statistics on health status, health care and health determinants, and socio-demographic characteristics of the population to enable the study and improvement of these areas.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE).
Type of information: Regarding cancer prevention information, contains the percentage of the female resident population aged 50 to 69 years who reported having had mammography done in the 2 years prior to the interview and the female resident population aged 20 to 69 years who reported having had cervical cytology done in the 3 years prior to the interview, both filtered by education level and region of residence.
The list of variables included in Patient level data is longer and can be checked in this website.
Source of information: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE)
Data level: National level (open access) and Patient level (restricted access).
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: 2005 onwards. It occurs on a five-year basis.
Cancer Areas of Interest: Breast and cervix neoplasms.
Data access: Mammography examination by education level and region of residence (2005 and 2014 onwards); Cervical cytology by education level and region of residence (2005 and 2014 onwards).
Information/contact for data request: Contact information.
Database: Health Care Personnel Statistics
[4]
Primary purpose: Publish statistics on the number of health professionals registered in the professional organizations.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE).
Type of information: Number of medical specialists filtered by place of residence, gender and specialty, subspecialty or competence. Considering cancer area, the database presents information about the number of medical and pediatric oncology professionals.
Source of information: Regarding the information about oncologists, the source is the Medical Association.
Data level: Regional level.
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: 2011 onwards.
Cancer Areas of Interest: Unknown.
Data access: Open access in this webpage.
Information/contact for data request: Contact information.
Database: Cancer Incidence, Survival and Mortality in the Southern Region of Portugal (ISM)
[ https://ron.min-saude.pt/media/2200/ror_sul_ism_2016_17.pdf 5]
Primary purpose: Inform about cancer statistics regarding the south region of Portugal. Gathers information about the following regions: health regions of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo (LVT), Alentejo, Algarve and the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: National Cancer Registry (RON).
Type of information: Survival (by gender and age) and Incidence rates (specific, crude and standardized for age, sex, and tumor location per 100,000 people) with tables and graphs
Presents also mortality rates (specific, crude and standardized for age, by malignant tumor and sex) information from INE.
Patient level information contains identification fields (example: name, gender, date of birth or age, and address); diagnosis, tumor and treatment fields (diagnosis dates, basis of diagnosis, primary location, histologic type, behavior, stage, treatment start date and treatment sequence); follow-up fields (patient vital status, date and cause of death).
Source of information: Regional Oncology Registry South (ROR-Sul).
Data level: Regional level (open access) and Patient level (restrict acess).
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: Regional level is presented from 2002 to 2017, and 1998* - 2000/2001*. Patient level date range is unknown.
(*Only includes cancer incidence data)
Cancer Areas of Interest: The list can be checked at the page 25 of this document.
Data access: Reports with regional data can be accessed through the national miscellaneous publications section on the National Cancer Registry website, at this link.
To have access to this area, it is necessary to create a login on the site using the "create user" button at the top of the website.
To access patient level data, it is necessary to contact the National Cancer Registry (RON) directly.
Information/contact for data request: [ Contact information].
Database: Cancer Survival and Incidence in the Northern Region of Portugal
Primary purpose: Inform about cancer statistics regarding the south region of Portugal. Gathers information about the following districts: Braga, Bragança, Porto, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: National Cancer Registry (RON).
Type of information: Cancer survival (overall, observed, net, standardized, by gender, type of tumor, time since diagnosis, age, and region of residence) for people over 15 years old.
Cancer incidence (crude number, crude and standardized rate per 100,000, by sex, age, and tumor location).
Source of information: Northern Regional Oncology Registry (RORENO).
Data level: Regional level (open access) and Patient level (restrict acess).
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: Incidence is presented from 1988 to 2011. Survival ranges from 2005 to 2010.
Cancer Areas of Interest: Survival - all tumors except basal cellular and squamous cell tumors of the skin. Incidence - all tumors except basal cell carcinomas and nonspecific tumors of the skin.
Data access: Reports with regional data can be accessed through the national miscellaneous publications section on the National Cancer Registry website, at this link.
To have access to this area, it is necessary to create a login on the site using the "create user" button at the top of the website.
To access patient level data, it is necessary to contact the National Cancer Registry (RON) directly.
Information/contact for data request: [ Contact information].
Database: Cancer Survival and Incidence in the Central Region of Portugal
Primary purpose: Inform about cancer statistics regarding the south region of Portugal. Gathers information about the following districts: Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Guarda, Leiria e Viseu.
Sponsor, manager or home institution: National Cancer Registry (RON).
Type of information: Cancer incidence (gross number, gross rate, overall and standardized per 100,000, by sex, age and tumor location).
Source of information: Central zone regional oncology registry (ROR-Centro).
Data level: Regional level (open access) and Patient level (restrict acess).
Number of Records: Unknown.
Date range: 1989 - 2010.
Cancer Areas of Interest: List is available at the page 3 of this document.
Data access: Reports with regional data can be accessed through the national miscellaneous publications section on the National Cancer Registry website, at this link.
To have access to this area, it is necessary to create a login on the site using the "create user" button at the top of the website.
To access patient level data, it is necessary to contact the National Cancer Registry (RON) directly.
Information/contact for data request: [ Contact information].
