Vanbraband, Joren
Van Damme, Nancy
Bouche, Gauthier
Silversmit, Geert
De Geyndt, Anke
de Jonge, Eric
Jacomen, Gerd
Goffin, Frédéric
Denys, Hannelore
Amant, Frédéric
Funding for this research was provided by:
Kom op tegen Kanker (KotK_Stichting Kankerregister/2018/11467/1, KotK_KUL/2018/11467/1, KotK_KUL/2018/11467/1)
Article History
Received: 17 December 2021
Accepted: 9 May 2022
First Online: 1 June 2022
Declarations
:
: This study was performed within the legal and ethical framework of the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR), for which we like to refer to the following laws and regulations: (a) the specific BCR law (i.e., the law of December 13<sup>th</sup>, 2006 on various health-related provisions, chapter 6, article 39; Belgian Official Gazette of December 22<sup>nd</sup>, 2006, p 73786); (b) the Belgian privacy law (i.e., the law of July 30<sup>th</sup>, 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data; Belgian Official Gazette of September 5<sup>th</sup>, 2018); (c) deliberation no. 09/071 of September 15<sup>th</sup>, 2009 with regard to the communication of personal data by the insurance institutions to the Foundation Cancer Registry in the context of article 45 quinquies of the Royal Decree no. 78 of November 10<sup>th</sup>, 1967 concerning the exercise of the health professions (Belgian Privacy Commission; last amended on February 18<sup>th</sup>, 2014).Based on these laws and regulations, the BCR was authorized by national law to collect, analyze and report all data included in this particular study. More precisely, based on the specific BCR law, the BCR was authorized to use the patient’s national social security number as unique patient identifier in order to link its own routinely-collected data with the Crossroads Bank for Social Security (vital status data) and the EFFECT database. Furthermore, through the abovementioned authorization from the Belgian Privacy Commission, the BCR was also authorized to use this unique patient identifier for linking its data with health insurance data from the InterMutualistic Agency.Before analysis, all data was pseudonymized by the BCR. In order to gain access to this pseudonymized data, everyone involved in the formal data analysis of this study had to (a) take part in a privacy training and the accompanying examination (provided by the BCR), (b) sign a data confidentiality clause, and (c) sign a research agreement with the BCR. This to guarantee the safety and confidentiality of the data.All authors declare to have followed the ethical code of scientific research in Belgium (http://www.belspo.be/belspo/organisation/publ/pub_ostc/Eth_code/ethcode_nl.pdf). As a result, this study was carried out in accordance with all relevant guidelines and regulations, and no additional ethical approval nor informed consent was required for this study.
: Not applicable.
: H.D.: (a) Consulting or Advisory Role: Pfizer (Inst), Roche (Inst), PharmaMar (Inst), AstraZeneca (Inst), Eli Lilly (Inst), Novartis (Inst), Amgen (Inst), GSK (Inst); (b) Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Pfizer (Inst), Roche (Inst), PharmaMar (Inst), Teva (Inst), AstraZeneca (Inst). All other authors: no known competing interests to declare.