Alert regarding “Social inequalities in treatment receipt for childhood cancers in Ireland: A population‐based analysis. Michal Molcho, Audrey A. Thomas, Paul M. Walsh, Roderick Skinner, Linda Sharp. Int J Cancer 2022 Mar 15;150(6):941–951. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33856”

Abstract

We would like to draw the attention of the reader to some correspondence about this article published as Letters to the Editor 1,2 in the International Journal of Cancer.Barret et al 1 have reported some important concerns about the completeness and accuracy of data used for the analyses in the above article, as originally provided by the National Cancer Registry Ireland (NCRI). These data concerns were highlighted by a re-analysis of the NCRI data, with updates from this registry itself as well as from clinical hospital records, they have performed in response to the above article. The results of this re-analysis showed major corrections regarding the percentages of patients with childhood cancer that were reported not to have received treatment. In addition, the re-analyses by Barrett and colleagues clearly dissipate any notions that some patients with hematologic childhood malignancies in Ireland would have been undertreated, or that any degree of under-treatment would exist in association with social deprivation status of a patient's area of residence.