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Publications

Journal Article Ppublish

PubMed: 42734108 DOI: 10.1002/cam4.72266

Cancer Patients Mortality From Other Causes: A European Population-Based Study.

Cancer Med 15(9):e72266

Authors: Gemma Gatta, Riccardo Capocaccia, Silvia Rossi, Maria Athanasiadou, Damien Bennett, Ladislav Dusek, Jaume Galceran, Monica Hackl, Bernd Holleczek, Kaire Innos, Alexander Katalinic, Raphael Marcos-Gragera, Deirdre Murray, Robin Schaffar, Stephanie Smits, Giedrė Smailytė, Hans Storm, Claudia Vener, Tina Žagar, Alice Bernasconi, Valerie Jooste, Laura Botta

Affiliations

  • Università Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
  • Editorial Board, Epidemiologia e Prevenzione, Milan, Italy.
  • Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
  • Cyprus Ministry of Health, Nicosia, Cyprus.
  • Northern Ireland Cancer Registry, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
  • Biostatistics and Analysis Institute, Masarykova University, Brno, Czech Republic.
  • Epidemiology and Prevention Cancer Service, Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus, IISPV, Reus, Spain.
  • Austrian National Cancer Registry, Wien, Austria.
  • Saarland Cancer Registry, Saarbrücken, Germany.
  • National Institute for Health Development, Tallin, Estonia.
  • Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Lubeck, Lübeck, Germany.
  • Girona Cancer Registry, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Girona, Spain.
  • National Cancer Registry Ireland and Department of Public Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
  • Geneva Cancer Registry, Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit, Public Health Wales, Cardiff, UK.
  • Lithuania National CR, Institute of Oncology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
  • Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Epidemiology and Prevention Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
  • Slovenian Cancer Registry, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Digestive Cancer Registry of Burgundy Dijon, Dijon, France.
  • Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Dijon Bourgogne, Dijon, France.
  • CTM Research Center-UMR1231, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Dijon, France.
  • Université Bourgogne Europe, Dijon, France.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Cancer patients may face elevated mortality not only from their malignancy but also from other factors including multi-morbidity and the impact of treatment-related complications. This study analyses mortality from all causes other than the index cancer among cancer patients compared to the general population.

METHODS

We analysed EUROCARE-6 data on 1,894,057 cancers diagnosed in 13 European countries and collected by 17 cancer registries with complete official cause-of-death information. Included were first-primary head and neck (H&N), stomach, colorectal, lung, breast, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, prostatic, kidney, and bladder cancers diagnosed between 1998 and 2013 in patients aged 15-79, with follow-up until 31st December 2014. We estimated the relative risk (RR) of death from all other causes for patients relative to population mortality rates. Cause-specific survival (CSS) was compared to relative survival (RS) at 5 and 10 years.

RESULTS

RR were > 2 for H&N and female lung cancers, between 1 and 2 for stomach, male lung, cervix, endometrial, ovary, kidney and bladder, and < 1 for prostate and female breast cancers. Relative risk declined with increasing age for almost all cancer types. Ten-year CSS exceeded RS by 7%-11% points (pp) in H&N cancers, with smaller differences in bladder (2-6 pp), stomach, lung, cervix, ovary and kidney (2-3 pp). CSS was lower than RS in breast and prostate cancers.

CONCLUSION

Differentiation between deaths due to the index cancer and to all other causes is crucial for patient follow-up and to improve quality of life. Cause-of-death data should be a core component of population-based cancer registries to inform interpretation of survivorship data.

MeSH

Registries, Urinary Bladder, Mortality, Lung, Stomach, Ovary, Neoplasms, Prostate, Kidney, Breast, Cervix Uteri