Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Viewpoint
  • Published:

Mortality and survival in breast and colorectal cancer

Nature Clinical Practice Oncology volume 2, pages 424–425 (2005)Cite this article

The number of new cases of cancer being diagnosed worldwide has doubled over the last 3 decades to almost 11 million annually. Breast and colorectal cancer have been increasing since 1975 and together comprised nearly 20% of the global cancer burden by 2002.1 In 2004, colorectal cancer was the second most common incident form of cancer in Europe and also the second most common cause of cancer death, while breast cancer was ranked third for incidence and fourth for mortality.2

Colorectal cancer mortality has fallen significantly over a long period in Ireland3 and Scotland. A systematic analysis was made of selected countries in the WHO Mortality Database. In the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, mortality from breast cancer and from colorectal cancer in both men and women has declined. In the US, colorectal cancer has declined since 1960 in women and since around 1975 in men, and breast cancer since around 1990. In Korea,4 Hong Kong (China) and Japan, although rates are lower, they still appear to be increasing. Incidence and mortality data from these countries are represented in supplementary figures 1-6 online.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Ferlay J et al. (2004) GLOBOCAN 2002: Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide (IARC CancerBase No. 5, version 2.0). Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer

  2. Boyle P and Ferlay J (2005) Cancer incidence and mortality in Europe, 2004. Ann Oncol 16: 481–488

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Boyle P et al. (2003) Cancer mortality in Ireland, 1926–1995. Ann Oncol 14: 323–332

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Boyle P et al. (2005) Workgroup I: criteria for screening. UICC international workshop on facilitating screening for colorectal cancer, Oslo, Norway (29 and 30 June 2002). Ann Oncol 16: 25–30

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sant M et al. (2003) EUROCARE-3: survival of cancer patients diagnosed 1990–94—results and commentary. Ann Oncol 14 (Suppl 5): v61–v118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gatta G et al. (1996) Substantial variation in therapy for colorectal cancer across Europe: EUROCARE analysis of cancer registry data for 1987. Eur J Cancer 32A: 831–835

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Sant M et al. (1995) Comparison of colon cancer survival among European countries: the EUROCARE Study. Int J Cancer 63: 43–48

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. McLaren G and Bain M (1998) Deprivation and health in Scotland: insights from NHS data. Edinburgh: ISD Scotland Publications

  9. Thomson CS et al. (2001) Prognostic factors in women with breast cancer: distribution by socioeconomic status and effect on differences in survival. J Epidemiol Community Health 55: 308–315

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Welch HG et al. (2000) Are increasing 5-year survival rates evidence of success against cancer? JAMA 283: 2975–2978

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France

    Peter Boyle

  2. staff scientist at the Descriptive Epidemiology Unit, International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France

    Jacques Ferlay

Authors
  1. Peter Boyle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jacques Ferlay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Boyle.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Boyle, P., Ferlay, J. Mortality and survival in breast and colorectal cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2, 424–425 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0288

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0288

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing