Comorbidity data were obtained from HES. Incomplete recording of stage data is a major limitation of UK cancer registry data.
The recording of stage improved considerably in the NYCRIS data from 1998 onwards (registry merger in 1997).
Overall, the recording of staging information improved from 1996, with the proportion of unknown stage decreasing from 36% in 1997 to 22% in 1999 then 15% in 2008.
However, these data are not readily available for all gynaecological cancers in the UK due to the general lack of accurate recording of staging data (Department of Health, 2012).
As recording of stage information becomes increasingly complete and consistent across England, future work should aim to encompass more recent cohorts of patients using nationwide data.
Improved standards of diagnosis, particularly the use of Hopkins' rod telescopes as part of panendoscopy, cross-sectional imaging with CT or MRI, and fine needle aspiration, are likely to have increased the accuracy (and indeed recording) of staging of larynx cancer.
Since the modernisation of the English cancer registry, the recording of stage has been much improved and we will be able to analyse the mediation effect of stage on survival when the 2012 data has accrued a few more years of follow-up for death.
With a cast like this, the Menier's track record of staging fabulous small-scale musicals looks set to continue.
The proscenium effect fades away, and the films seem less like fly-in-amber records of stage presentations than little movies in their own right.
It was business as usual for Britain's stars, with Cavendish taking his record of stage wins in his home Tour into double figures, while Wiggins sealed the overall title as expected.
