A method for partitioning cancer mortality trends by factors associated with diagnosis: an application to female breast cancer.
U.S. cancer mortality data derived from information recorded on death certificates are frequently relied upon as an indicator of progress against cancer. A limitation of this measure is the lack of information pertaining to the onset of disease, such as year-of-diagnosis, age-at-diagnosis, stage of disease at diagnosis and histology of lesions. However, population-based cancer registries collect these types of data and allow the calculation of an incidence-file based mortality rate. This incidence-based mortality rate allows a partitioning of mortality by variables associated with the cancer onset. Breast cancer incidence-based mortality measures are created and compared to mortality rates based on death certificates over a comparable time period. Novel mortality measures, such as mortality rates by stage-at-diagnosis, age-at-diagnosis and year-of-diagnosis, are used to illustrate the value of this approach.
Chu
K C
KC
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20982, USA.
Miller
B A
BA
Feuer
E J
EJ
Hankey
B F
BF
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality; D013997:Time Factors