Causes of death among cancer patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The purpose of our study was to characterize the causes of death among cancer patients as a function of objectives: (i) calendar year, (ii) patient age, and (iii) time after diagnosis.

Patients and methods

US death certificate data in Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Stat 8.2.1 were used to categorize cancer patient death as being due to index-cancer, nonindex-cancer, and noncancer cause from 1973 to 2012. In addition, data were characterized with standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), which provide the relative risk of death compared with all persons.

Results

The greatest relative decrease in index-cancer death (generally from > 60% to < 30%) was among those with cancers of the testis, kidney, bladder, endometrium, breast, cervix, prostate, ovary

SUBMITTER: Zaorsky NG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5834100 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature