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Should we use incidence, survival or mortality to assess breast cancer trends in European women?

Nature Clinical Practice Oncology volume 3, pages 228–229 (2006)Cite this article

The interpretation of cancer incidence and patient survival data—the main indicators of trends in cancer risk from cancer registry data—is not straightforward. Should we be using alternative measures, such as mortality rates, instead?

The incidence of cancer is a clinical expression of its risk. Incidence trends reflect antecedent trends in the population's exposure to causal risk factors, many of which are unknown. Incidence is also affected by the intensity of diagnostic activity, which varies over time, between countries and within populations. Mass screening for breast cancer, introduced in many European countries since the 1980s, has led to predictable short-term peaks in incidence, particularly of early stage and in situ cancers, and also of clinically silent cancers in women who would have died of other causes.1 Increased diagnostic activity can lead to higher recorded cancer incidence and patient survival.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Don Ward for his editorial assistance on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Head of Department, in the Department of Predictive and Preventive Medicine, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la cura dei Tumori, Milan

    Milena Sant, Silvia Francisci, Riccardo Capocaccia, Arduino Verdecchia, Claudia Allemani & Franco Berrino

  2. National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion at the National Heath Institute, Rome, Italy

    Milena Sant, Silvia Francisci, Riccardo Capocaccia, Arduino Verdecchia, Claudia Allemani & Franco Berrino

Authors
  1. Milena Sant
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  2. Silvia Francisci
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  3. Riccardo Capocaccia
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  4. Arduino Verdecchia
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  5. Claudia Allemani
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  6. Franco Berrino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Milena Sant.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1

Survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer in England and Wales aged 20–49 years, 50–69 years and 70–79 years during 1971–93

Supplementary Figure 2

Time trends of breast cancer incidence, mortality and survival in Estonia.

Supplementary Figure 3

Time trends of breast cancer incidence, mortality and survival in Denmark

Supplementary Figure 4

Time trends of breast cancer incidence, mortality and survival in Finland.

Supplementary Figure 5

Time trends of breast cancer incidence, mortality and survival in Sweden.

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Sant, M., Francisci, S., Capocaccia, R. et al. Should we use incidence, survival or mortality to assess breast cancer trends in European women?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 3, 228–229 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0489

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0489

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