# National Cancer Registry, South Africa

Source: https://onco.cc/institutions/national-cancer-registry-south-africa/  
OnCo record `national-cancer-registry-south-africa` (Institution). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

South Africa's national cancer registry, part of the National Health Laboratory Service. Since 1986 it has counted every cancer confirmed by a laboratory, and since 2017 it has also run registries that count every cancer, however diagnosed, in Ekurhuleni and, since 2023, in KwaZulu-Natal.

## Summary

The National Cancer Registry is a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, run from 1 Modderfontein Road, Sandringham, Johannesburg, and published through the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Since 1986 it has run pathology-based registration: public and private laboratories send it every cancer diagnosed by histology, cytology or bone marrow, and it publishes counts and rates by sex, age and population group each year. Its tables for cancers diagnosed in 2024, posted in April 2026, count 48,865 cancers in women and 42,770 in men, including basal and squamous cell skin cancers; the rates for all cancers exclude those skin cancers and are 110 per 100,000 for women and 115 for men, age-standardised to the world population.

Regulation R. 380 under the National Health Act, gazetted on 26 April 2011, established the registry in law under the control of the chief executive of the National Health Laboratory Service and made cancer reportable: a health establishment that confirms a diagnosis must submit a notification within three months, and laboratories must report quarterly. The regulation allows population-based registration to be introduced incrementally. The Ekurhuleni Population-Based Cancer Registry began collecting in January 2017 and counted 4,914 new cancers in 2024; the KwaZulu-Natal registry, run with the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Cancer and Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit since 2023, counted 3,923 in eThekwini. A separate childhood cancer registry counted 3,032 cancers in children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 in 2022 and 2023.

The registry also runs the South African HIV Cancer Match Study, which links its records to the laboratory service's HIV test results. Its Ekurhuleni report for 2024 records that a cyberattack on the National Health Laboratory Service and a new patient identification system delayed case confirmation, so the 2024 total likely modestly underestimates true incidence, while its discussion adds that part of the 2024 rise reflects back-capture of records missed in 2023 rather than a true increase. The coordinates are approximate for Sandringham, not the street address.

## Fields

- Kind: Institution
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: NCR; South African National Cancer Registry; NCR South Africa
- City: Johannesburg, ZA
- Type: government
- Website: https://www.nicd.ac.za/centres/national-cancer-registry/

## Sources

- National Cancer Registry (NICD): https://www.nicd.ac.za/centres/national-cancer-registry/
- National Cancer Registry: summary statistics of cancer diagnosed histologically in 2024 (PDF): https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/NCR_Pathology_2024_Report.pdf
- Ekurhuleni Population-Based Cancer Registry 2024 Report (March 2026, PDF): https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/EPBCR_2024_Report.pdf
- KwaZulu-Natal Population-Based Cancer Registry Annual Report 2024 (PDF): https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/KZNPBCR-Annual-Report-2024.pdf
- Childhood Cancer Registry 2022 to 2023 Annual Report (PDF): https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/CHILDHOOD-CANCER-REGISTRY-2022-2023-ANNUAL-REPORT.pdf
- Regulations relating to cancer registration, R. 380, Government Gazette 34248, 26 April 2011 (PDF): https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cancer-Registration-Regulation-380-of-National-Health-Act-no-61-of-2003.pdf

## Connected records

- cancers: [Breast cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-cancer/), [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/), [Childhood cancers (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/), [Kaposi sarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/kaposi-sarcoma/), [Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- institutions: [Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/inkosi-albert-luthuli-hospital/), [International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/iarc/), [National Department of Health, South Africa](https://onco.cc/institutions/south-africa-national-department-of-health/), [National Health Laboratory Service, South Africa](https://onco.cc/institutions/nhls-south-africa/)
- people: [Mazvita Muchengeti](https://onco.cc/people/mazvita-muchengeti/)
- key papers: [Age and Cancer Incidence in 5.2 Million People With Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV): The South African HIV Cancer Match Study](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-ruffieux-age-cancer-hiv-south-africa-cid-2023/), [Changes in incidence of HPV-related cancers in South Africa (2011-21): a cross-sectional analysis of the South African National Cancer Registry](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-shing-hpv-related-cancers-south-africa-lancet-glob-health-2025/), [Integration of HIV Status in Cancer Surveillance in South Africa: A Call for Action](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-metekoua-hiv-status-cancer-registry-south-africa-cancer-med-2026/)

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