title: Comparison of survival rates between Chinese and Thai patients with breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The burden and severity of a cancer can be reflected by patterns of survival. Breast cancer prognosis between two countries with a different socioeconomic status and cultural beliefs may exhibit wide variation. This study aimed to describe survival in patients with breast cancer in China and Thailand in relation to demographic and clinical prognostic information.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the survival of 1,504 Chinese women in Yunnan province and 929 Thai women in Songkhla with breast cancer from 2006 to 2010. Descriptive prognostic comparisons between the Chinese and Thai women were performed by relative survival analysis. A Cox regression model was used to calculate the hazard ratios of death, taking into account the age, disease stage, period of diagnosis and country.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall 5-year survival proportion for patients diagnosed with breast cancer for Yunnan province (0.72) appeared slightly better than Songkhla (0.70) without statistical significance. Thai women diagnosed with distant and regional breast cancer had poorer survival than Chinese women. Disease stage was the most important determinant of survival from the results of Cox regression model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Breast cancer patients in Kunming had slightly greater five-year survival rate than patients in Songkhla. Both Chinese and Thai women need improvement in prognosis, which could conceivably be attained through increased public education and awareness regarding early detection and compliance to treatment protocols.
authors.affiliation: Galactophore Department, The First Peoples ? Hospital of Kunming City, Kunming, China E-mail : hutcha.s@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Che
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Shaojiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yeying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xuejun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Sijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Hutcha
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sriplung
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult