Incidence and survival among female breast cancer patients in the United States: An analysis from national registry data 2000-2009.

Abstract

41 Background: This study evaluated incidence and survival among breast cancer (BC) patients in the United States during 2000-2009, by cancer stage. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program SEER*Stat Database was used for this analysis. SEER is an epidemiologic surveillance system consisting of population-based tumor registries designed to track cancer incidence and survival in the US. The registries routinely collect information on incident cancer cases in areas that represent approximately 25% of the US population. We evaluated age-adjusted (to the 2000 US standard population) incidence (number of cases per 100,000 population), and survival among newly diagnosed female breast cancer patients during 2000-2009, by cancer stage (localized, regional, distant and unknown/unstaged). Results: A total of 547,086 cases of female BC were reported to SEER during 2000-2009. Localized BC (average incidence rate during 2000-2009 of 77.6 cases per 100,000 population) was the most common stage among newly diagnosed patients, followed by regional (39.7), distant (6.2), and unknown/unstaged BC (3.2). Incidence rates decreased for regional (average annual change -1.3%), localized (average annual change -0.2%), and unknown/unstaged (average annual change -7.2%) BC and increased for distant BC (1.4%). One-year (five-year) survival rates averaged over 2000-2009 (2000-2005 for five-year) were 100% (97%) for localized BC, 98% (82%) for regional BC, 65% (22%) for distant BC, and 80% (55%) for unknown/unstaged BC. Both one-year and five-year survival rates were steady during this period. Conclusions: Based on US population-based registry data, the incidence and survival for breast cancer were relatively steady for localized, regional and distant BC over the most recently-available 10-year period. There is considerable room to improve survival rates for patients with regional and distant BC. Further studies evaluating the survival experience of later-stage BC patients based on other key factors, such as age, race, treatment patterns, and tumor characteristics (e.g., ER/HER2 status) are warranted.