Beral and Peto’s assessment of cancer registration in the United Kingdom does not reflect recent practice.1 In Scotland data are gathered from multiple sources, including pathology reports. Typically, most (>95%) breast cancers are recorded as microscopically verified, around 1% are “notified” solely by death record, and <0.5% end up as “death certificate only” registrations. By referring to source documents, staff make every effort to capture the earliest …