IJERPH, Vol. 16, Pages 3093: Understanding Differences in Cancer Survival between Populations: A New Approach and Application to Breast Cancer Survival Differentials between Danish Regions

IJERPH, Vol. 16, Pages 3093: Understanding Differences in Cancer Survival between Populations: A New Approach and Application to Breast Cancer Survival Differentials between Danish Regions International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph16173093 Authors: Marie-Pier Bergeron-Boucher Jim Oeppen Niels Vilstrup Holm Hanne Melgaard Nielsen Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen Maarten Jan Wensink Large variations in cancer survival have been recorded between populations, e.g., between countries or between regions in a country. To understand the determinants of cancer survival differentials between populations, researchers have often applied regression analysis. We here propose the use of a non-parametric decomposition method to quantify the exact contribution of specific components to the absolute difference in cancer survival between two populations. Survival differences are here decomposed into the contributions of differences in stage at diagnosis, population age structure, and stage-and-age-specific survival. We demonstrate the method with the example of differences in one-year and five-year breast cancer survival between Denmark’s five regions. Differences in stage at diagnosis explained 45% and 27%, respectively, of the one- and five-year survival differences between Zealand and Central Denmark for patients diagnosed between 2008 and 2010. We find that the introduced decomposition method provides a powerful complementary a...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research