Interpreting trends in cancer patient survival

Data on cancer patient survival are an invaluable tool in the evaluation of therapeutic progress against cancer as well as other lethal diseases. As with all quantitative information routinely used in evidence‐based clinical management – including diagnostic tests, prognostic markers and comparisons...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of internal medicine 2006-08, Vol.260 (2), p.103-117
Main Authors: DICKMAN, P. W., ADAMI, H.‐O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
cancer
Data Collection
Data Interpretation, Statistical
excess mortality
General aspects
Humans
Incidence
Mass Screening
Medical sciences
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neoplasms - mortality
Neoplasms - therapy
relative survival prognosis
survival
Survival Analysis
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Data on cancer patient survival are an invaluable tool in the evaluation of therapeutic progress against cancer as well as other lethal diseases. As with all quantitative information routinely used in evidence‐based clinical management – including diagnostic tests, prognostic markers and comparisons of therapeutic interventions – data on patient survival require evaluation based on an understanding of the underlying statistical methodology, methods of data collection and classification, and, most notably, clinical and biologic insight. This article contains an introduction to the methods used for estimating cancer patient survival, including cause‐specific survival, relative survival and period analysis. The methods, and their interpretation, are illustrated through presentation of trends in incidence, mortality and patient survival for a range of different cancers. Our aim was to lay out the strengths and limitations of survival analysis as a tool in the evaluation of progress in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
ISSN:0954-6820
1365-2796
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2796.2006.01677.x