In order to succeed in realising general health-policy goals for cancer care, they must be formulated as specific and realistic objectives. An administrative organ must be provided with the authority and funding needed to establish the technical solutions required. Reporting to national registries must take place automatically in electronic form, on the basis of ongoing structured reporting in the patient records. In our opinion the Directorate of Health should enter into cooperation with the College of American Pathologists, with a view to integrating a Norwegian version of their electronic checklists for pathology reporting of cancer into the hospitals' record systems.