biostudies-literatureUnknown177(3)Giannakeas V<h4>Background</h4>Women with ER-positive breast cancer may recur as late as 20 years post-diagnosis. The reason for this delayed recurrence is unknown. We studied survival patterns, including time-to-death in 123,705 women with stage I to III invasive breast cancer, enrolled in the SEER database. Among these 76.8% were ER-positive and 23.2% were ER-negative.<h4>Methods</h4>We divided the cohort into ten classes with varying risks of death from breast cancer. The 20-year mortality for women in the highest risk decile 10 was 69% versus 5% for women in the lowest decile 1. The difference in the time-to-death by decile could be explained by a variable α which represents the annual rate of reactivation from tumour dormancy.<h4>Results</h4>The duration of tumour dormancy was much longer, on aveBreast cancer research and treatment691-703https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6745044biostudies-literatureA generalizable relationship between mortality and time-to-death among breast cancer patients can be explained by tumour dormancy.PMC6745044Narod SAGiannakeas VfalseA generalizable relationship between mortality and time-to-death among breast cancer patients can be explained by tumour dormancy.<h4>Background</h4>Women with ER-positive breast cancer may recur as late as 20 years post-diagnosis. The reason for this delayed recurrence is unknown. We studied survival patterns, including time-to-death in 123,705 women with stage I to III invasive breast cancer, enrolled in the SEER database. Among these 76.8% were ER-positive and 23.2% were ER-negative.<h4>Methods</h4>We divided the cohort into ten classes with varying risks of death from breast cancer. The 20-year mortality for women in the highest risk decile 10 was 69% versus 5% for women in the lowest decile 1. The difference in the time-to-death by decile could be explained by a variable α which represents the annual rate of reactivation from tumour dormancy.<h4>Results</h4>The duration of tumour dormancy was much longer, on ave2019-01-01T00:00:00Z2019 Oct2025-04-22T06:13:17.586Z2019-10-11T07:05:32ZS-EPMC67450443126406310.1007/s10549-019-05334-5