From evidence to practice: Population-based monitoring of the use of breast-conserving surgery for the treatment of breast cancer using record linkage of routinely collected data

Cancer registry records of all cases of breast cancer in women resident in NSW diagnosed in the period 1991 to 1998 were linked using probabilistic techniques with records of breast surgery extracted from hospital separations data for 1991 to 1999. The trend in the proportion of women undergoing BCS was examined and logistic regression was used to examine the infl uence of geographical remoteness, age, degree of spread, insurance status and hospital throughput.