OBJECTIVES: To create an overview that makes researchers aware of the available database linkages in Northern America and Europe which facilitate pharmacoepidemiologic studies in cancer patients. METHODS: In addition to our own database, i.e. the Eindhoven Cancer Registry (ECR) linked to the PHARMO RLS, we considered database linkages between a population-based cancer registry, that provides detailed tumor information of incident cancer cases, and an administrative healthcare database, that at least contains information on drug use and offers a longitudinal perspective on health care utilization before, during and after cancer diagnosis. Eligible database linkages should have been used in multiple published articles in English language included in Pubmed. The Cancer Research Network (CRN) in the United States was excluded from this review, as an overview of the linked databases participating in the CRN is already provided elsewhere. Researchers who had worked with the data resources included in our review were contacted for additional information and verification of the data presented in the overview. RESULTS: Ten database linkages met the inclusion criteria: the SEER-Medicare, cancer registry data linked to Medicaid, the British Columbia Cancer Registry and Health data, the Saskatchewan Health Plan Databases, the Scottish cancer registry linked to the Tayside drug dispensing data, linked databases in the Nordic Countries of Europe: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and the ECR-PHARMO linkage in the Netherlands. Descriptives of included database linkages comprise population size, generalizability of the population, year of first data availability, vital status, contents of the cancer registry, contents of the administrative healthcare database, the possibility to select a cancer-free control cohort, and linkage to other health care databases. CONCLUSIONS: Various valuable resources of information are available to study the disease management of cancer, including treatment patterns and outcomes assessments, creating new opportunities for post-approval evaluation of anti-cancer drugs.