Minimal impact of COVID-19 on one-year mortality on U.S. cancer patients diagnosed early in the pandemic.

Cancer patients diagnosed early in the COVD-19 pandemic may have been particularly vulnerable due to immunosuppression caused by their cancer. The objective was to assess cause of death due to COVID-19, cancer and other causes among cancer patients during the pandemic. We thus examined causes of death (cancer, COVID-19, other causes) among cancer patients diagnosed in 2020 (N=503,128) compared to 2018 (N=537,006) in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-22.

Urban-rural disparities in lung cancer incidence and mortality patterns in Black and White populations.

Background: Lung cancer mortality trends among Black and White populations and urban compared to rural populations are critical for assessing disparities in cancer outcomes.

Methods: This serial cross-sectional study used US national death certificate data from the National Center for Health Statistics and data from the National Program of Cancer Registries and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. The study analyzed lung cancer incidence (2001-2021) and mortality (1990-2021) trends by race, sex, and urban-rural status.

Estimation of Cancer Deaths Averted From Prevention, Screening, and Treatment Efforts, 1975-2020.

Importance: Cancer mortality has decreased over time, but the contributions of different interventions across the cancer control continuum to averting cancer deaths have not been systematically evaluated across major cancer sites.

Objective: To quantify the contributions of prevention, screening (to remove precursors [interception] or early detection), and treatment to cumulative number of cancer deaths averted from 1975 to 2020 for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this model-based study using population-level cancer mortality data, outputs from published models developed by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network were extended to quantify cancer deaths averted through 2020.

Assessing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on 1-year cancer survival in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on health-care delivery. We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to assess changes in 1-year relative survival and competing risk probabilities of cancer and non-cancer death for patients diagnosed in 2018 Q2 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 Q2 (pandemic). For all cancer sites combined, 1-year relative survival declined from 82.

Real-world lessons: combining cancer registry and retail pharmacy data for oral cancer drugs.

Background: Recent cancer care advances have introduced new oral therapies, and yet population registries lack detailed treatment data, hampering investigations into therapy uptake, adherence, and outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the representativeness and completeness of linking Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registry data with data from two major retail pharmacy chains, collectively covering a large segment of the US market.

Methods: A deterministic data linkage between 11 SEER cancer registries and retail pharmacy data (excluding mail order fills) was conducted for individuals diagnosed with selected cancers from 2013 to 2017, with follow-up through 2019.

Increase in the Life Expectancy of Patients with Cancer in the United States.

Background: Cancer is becoming more of a chronic disease due to improvements in treatment and early detection for multiple cancer sites. To gain insight on increased life expectancy due to these improvements, we quantified trends in the loss in expectation of life (LEL) due to a cancer diagnosis for six cancer sites from 1975 through 2018.

Methods: We focused on patients diagnosed with female breast cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), colon and rectum cancer, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), lung cancer, or melanoma between 1975 and 2018 from nine Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registries.

Cancer and COVID-19: US cancer incidence rates during the first year of the pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound global impact on health-care systems and patient outcomes. However, the specific effects of the pandemic on cancer incidence rates in the United States during its initial year remain unknown.

Methods: In this study, we analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-22 registries, which encompass approximately 50% of the US population.

Interpreting cancer incidence trends: challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The considerable deficit in cancer diagnoses in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in health care can pose challenges in the estimation and interpretation of long-term cancer trends. Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) (2000-2020) data, we demonstrate that inclusion of the 2020 incidence rates in joinpoint models to estimate trends can result in a poorer fit to the data and less accurate or less precise trend estimates, providing challenges in the interpretation of the estimates as a cancer control measure. To measure the decline in 2020 relative to 2019 cancer incidence rates, we used the percent change of rates in 2020 compared with 2019.

The Impact of Improved Treatments on Survival of Adult U.S. Leukemia Patients: 1990-2018.

Introduction: Molecularly targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are effective treatments for B-cell receptor (BCR)-ABL-bearing leukemias. We evaluated the impact of TKIs on historical chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) mortality trends compared with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and chronic lymphoblastic leukemia (CLL).

Methods: Because mortality trends reflect combined effects of leukemia incidence and survival, we also evaluated the contribution of incidence and survival trends to mortality trends by subtypes.

Impact of including second and later cancers in cause-specific survival estimates using population-based registry data.

Background: Second or later primary cancers account for approximately 20% of incident cases in the United States. Currently, cause-specific survival (CSS) analyses exclude these cancers because the cause of death (COD) classification algorithm was available only for first cancers. The authors added rules for later cancers to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cause-specific death classification algorithm and evaluated CSS to include individuals with prior tumors.

Measuring progress against cancer in the Azores, Portugal: Incidence, survival, and mortality trends and projections to 2025.

Background: Measuring progress against cancer is more accurate when trends in incidence, survival, and mortality are interpreted simultaneously. Our study aims to analyze how these key metrics have evolved over time in the Azores, Portugal.

Methods: Data for incident cases diagnosed in 1997-2016 and followed up through December 31, 2017 were obtained from the Azores Cancer Registry.

Assessment of Oncology Practice Billing Claims for Supplementing Chemotherapy: A Pilot Study in the Georgia SEER Cancer Registry.

Background: Chemotherapy information in the population-based cancer registries is underascertained and lacks detail. We conducted a pilot study in the Georgia SEER Cancer Registry (GCR) to investigate the feasibility of supplementing chemotherapy information using billing claims from six private oncology practices (OP).

Methods: To assess cancer patients' representativeness from OP, we compared individuals with invasive first primary cancers diagnosed during 2013-2015 in the GCR (cohort 1) with those who had at least one OP claim in the 12 months after diagnosis (cohort 2).

Estimates of Overall Survival in Patients With Cancer Receiving Different Treatment Regimens: Emulating Hypothetical Target Trials in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare Linked Database.

Importance: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database may provide insights into the comparative effectiveness of oncological treatments for elderly individuals who are underrepresented in clinical trials.

Objective: To evaluate the suitability of SEER-Medicare data for assessing the effectiveness of adding a drug to an existing treatment regimen on the overall survival of elderly patients with cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This comparative effectiveness study analyzed SEER-Medicare data from 9549 individuals who received a new diagnosis of stage II colorectal cancer (2008-2012) and 940 patients who received a new diagnosis of advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (2007-2012), with follow-up to December 31, 2013 (SEER-Medicare data released in 2015).

Differences in Cancer Survival with Relative versus Cause-Specific Approaches: An Update Using More Accurate Life Tables.

Background: We investigated differences in net cancer survival (survival observed if the only possible cause of death was the cancer under study) estimated using new approaches for relative survival (RS) and cause-specific survival (CSS).

Methods: We used SEER data for patients diagnosed in 2000 to 2013, followed-up through December 31, 2014. For RS, we used new life tables accounting for geography and socio-economic status.

Genetic Testing and Results in a Population-Based Cohort of Breast Cancer Patients and Ovarian Cancer Patients.

Purpose: Genetic testing for cancer risk has expanded rapidly. We examined clinical genetic testing and results among population-based patients with breast and ovarian cancer.

Methods: The study included all women 20 years of age or older diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer in California and Georgia between 2013 and 2014 and reported to the SEER registries covering the entire state populations.

Racial Disparities in the Receipt of Guideline Care and Cancer Deaths for Women with Ovarian Cancer.

Background: Black women with ovarian cancer experience worse survival than white women. Receipt of guideline care improves survival, yet care may vary by race. We assessed rates of guideline care and role of guideline treatment on survival disparities.

Can We Use Survival Data from Cancer Registries to Learn about Disease Recurrence? The Case of Breast Cancer.

Population-representative risks of metastatic recurrence are not generally available because cancer registries do not collect data on recurrence. This article presents a novel method that estimates the risk of recurrence using cancer registry disease-specific survival. The method is based on an illness-death process coupled with a mixture cure model for net cancer survival.

Erratum: Author Correction: Breast-cancer-specific mortality in patients treated based on the 21-gene assay: a SEER population-based study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/npjbcancer.2016.

Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, part I: National cancer statistics.

Background: The American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) collaborate to provide annual updates on cancer occurrence and trends in the United States.

Methods: Incidence data were obtained from the CDC-funded and NCI-funded population-based cancer registry programs and compiled by NAACCR. Data on cancer deaths were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics National Vital Statistics System.

Differences in Breast Cancer Survival by Molecular Subtypes in the United States.

Unlabelled: Although incidence rates of breast cancer molecular subtypes are well documented, effects of molecular subtypes on breast cancer-specific survival using the largest population coverage to date are unknown in the U.S.

Population: Using Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry data, we assessed survival after breast cancer diagnosis among women diagnosed during 2010 to 2013 and followed through December 31, 2014.

Breast-cancer-specific mortality in patients treated based on the 21-gene assay: a SEER population-based study.

The 21-gene Recurrence Score assay is validated to predict recurrence risk and chemotherapy benefit in hormone-receptor-positive (HR+) invasive breast cancer. To determine prospective breast-cancer-specific mortality (BCSM) outcomes by baseline Recurrence Score results and clinical covariates, the National Cancer Institute collaborated with Genomic Health and 14 population-based registries in the the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program to electronically supplement cancer surveillance data with Recurrence Score results. The prespecified primary analysis cohort was 40-84 years of age, and had node-negative, HR+, HER2-negative, nonmetastatic disease diagnosed between January 2004 and December 2011 in the entire SEER population, and Recurrence Score results (=38,568).

Cancer-specific mortality, cure fraction, and noncancer causes of death among diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients in the immunochemotherapy era.

Background: Survival after the diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has been increasing since 2002 because of improved therapies; however, long-term outcomes for these patients in the modern treatment era are still unknown.

Methods: Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data, this study first assessed factors associated with DLBCL-specific mortality during 2002-2012. An epidemiologic risk profile, based on clinical and demographic characteristics, was used to stratify DLBCL cases into low-, medium-, and high-risk groups.