Breast and colorectal cancer recurrence and progression captured by five U.S. population-based registries: Findings from National Program of Cancer Registries patient-centered outcome research.

•Standards for defining cancer recurrence do not exist and data are limited.•Disease-free/recurrence data collection feasible but costly and in need of data standards.•We show an approach to estimate population-based cancer recurrence and recurrence-free survival.•If never disease-free, capture of progression was elusive but less critical due to poor survival.