The world’s first cancer registry was established in Hamburg as early as 1926. However, it was an exception in Germany for many years. National cancer registries in the GDR, Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia were not established until 1952 and were continued in 1992 as the Joint Cancer Registry (GKR). Saarland developed its own cancer registry in 1967.

Due to the Federal Cancer Registry Act of 1995, the federal states in Germany were then obliged to set up nationwide cancer registration. In the state of Bremen, this was implemented in 1998 with the establishment of the Bremen Epidemiological Cancer Registry.

With the Cancer Early Detection and Registry Act (KFRG) of 2013, the federal states were additionally obligated to establish nationwide clinical cancer registration, to also record and analyze therapies and the courses of cancer diseases. In 2015, the existing cancer registry in Bremen was therefore restructured into a clinical epidemiological cancer registry.