Table 2 Overview and characteristics of existing head and neck cancer (HNC) databases

Country of origin

Denmark

Nordic countries

NL

NL

NL

UK

USA

USA

NL

Database characteristics

 Head and cancer specific

yes

no

no

yes

yes

yes

no

no

yes

 Pro-/retrospective

pro

retro

retro

pro

pro

pro

retro

retro

both

 Hospital (h) or population (p) based

p

p

p

h

p

p

h

p

p

 Consecutive

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

no

no

yes

yes

Tumor characteristics

 Diagnosis/subsite

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

 TNM classification

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

 Treatment

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Sociodemographic data

 Demographic data

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

 Education/literacy

x

x

x

x

x

 Occupation

x

x

x

x

 Income

x

x

x

x

Health and lifestyle

 Co-morbidity

x

x

x

x

x

x

 Smoking/alcohol

x

x

x

x

x

x

 Quality of life

x

x

x

x

x

Follow-up

 Recurrence

x

x

x

x

x

 Mortality

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Biological samples

 Blood sample

x

x

x

x

 Saliva sample

x

x

 Tissue sample

x

x

x

x