Standardized breast cancer mortality rates compared to the general female population of Iran

Introduction: Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women. Improvements of early diagnosis modalities have led to longer survival rates. This study aimed to determine the 5, 10 and 15 year mortality rate of breast cancer patients compared to normal female population mortality.Materials and Methods: The follow up data of a cohort of 615 breast cancer patients referred to Iranian Centre for Breast Cancer (ICBC) from 1986 to 1996 was considered as reference breast cancer dataset. The dataset was divided into 5 year age groups and the 5, 10 and 15 year probability of death for each group was estimated. The annual mortality rate of Iranian women was obtained from the Death Registry system. Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) of breast cancer patients was calculated using the ratio of the mortality rate in breast cancer patients over the general female population.Results: The mean age of breast cancer patients at diagnosis time was 45.9(±10.5) years ranging from 24-74. A total of 73, 32 and 2 deaths were recorded at 5, 10 and 15 years, respectively, after diagnosis. The SMRs for breast cancer patients at 5, 10 and 15 year intervals after diagnosis were 6.74 (95% CI, 5.5- 8.2), 6.55 (95% CI, 5-8.1) and 1.26 (95% CI, 0.65 -2.9), respectively.Conclusion: Results showed that the observed mortality rate of breast cancer patients after 15 years from diagnosis is very similar to expected rates in general female population. These findings would be applicable in cost-effectiveness modelling and may be useful for clinicians and health policy makers to adopt a beneficial strategy to improve breast cancer survival.

Keywords:

Breast Cancer , SMR , survival , Iran