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Older black Americans are not receiving potentially sight-saving care for open-angle glaucoma at the same rate as older white Americans.

Background. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute is the most frequently used and best estimate of the incidence of cancer in the United States. Although synthetic estimates based on the SEER information can be used to plan cancer prevention and intervention programs, the evaluation of these action programs and the monitoring of cancer incidence in states or other geographic areas requires information on the population for whom the program is directed. Methods. The age‐adjusted incidence of six cancers among persons 65 years of age and older for 1986–1987 living in the five states participating in the SEER program was compared with the incidence derived from hospitalization records contained in the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) administrative data files. Age‐adjusted incidence rates for 1990 developed from HCFA data for persons living in the nine SEER program areas were contrasted with the incidence rates for persons living in the rest of the United States and were developed for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results. The comparison of the SEER and HCFA overall age‐adjusted cancer incidence rates in the elderly for 1986–1987 showed that for four of the six cancers (breast, colon, lung, and corpus uteri) the rates differed by 5% or less. The HCFA derived rates were 6.37% and 7.65% greater than the SEER rates for prostate and esophagus cancer, respectively. The incidence of cancer between 1986 and 1990 was neither uniformly higher nor lower among elderly SEER program area residents compared with residents of the rest of the country. Incidence rates varied greatly among states for each of the cancers. Conclusions. HCFA administrative data can be used by states or other geographic units to monitor the incidence of cancer in the elderly as well as to plan and evaluate cancer prevention and intervention programs.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute provides data for making national estimates of lung cancer incidence and for monitoring secular trends. The authors compared the number of cases of lung cancer and the incidence rates among elderly residents of the five states included in the SEER program in 1986-1987 with the number of incident cases identified and the rates calculated using hospitalization and enrollment data on elderly Medicare beneficiaries maintained by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) for the same years. The SEER program state registries identified 5.9% more cases than did HCFA (p < 0.01). However, the overall rates were similar (274.2/100,000 population for SEER and 264.7/100,000 population for HCFA), as were the majority of the rates for the different demographic subgroups examined. Age-adjusted lung cancer incidence rates for 1986 through 1990 among elderly Medicare beneficiaries residing outside of all nine SEER areas were 8-13 percent higher than the rates calculated for SEER-area residents. This observation is supported by the existence of similar differences in the age-adjusted lung cancer mortality rates for 1979 through 1988 in the same populations. Because the SEER areas may not be representative of the entire nation for lung cancer incidence and HCFA data cover the entire country, the authors recommend using HCFA information to complement the SEER data system.

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