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. 2008 Jun;109(3):567-72.
doi: 10.1007/s10549-007-9681-x. Epub 2007 Jul 28.

The in- or exclusion of non-breast cancer related death and contralateral breast cancer significantly affects estimated outcome probability in early breast cancer

R A Nout  1 , W E Fiets, H Struikmans, F R Rosendaal, H Putter, J W R Nortier
Affiliations

The in- or exclusion of non-breast cancer related death and contralateral breast cancer significantly affects estimated outcome probability in early breast cancer

R A Nout et al. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2008 Jun.

Abstract

A wide variation of definitions of recurrent disease and survival are used in the analyses of outcome of patients with early breast cancer. Explicit definitions with details both on endpoints and censoring are provided in less than half of published studies. We evaluated the effects of various definitions of survival and recurrent disease on estimated outcome in a prospectively determined cohort of 463 patients with primary breast cancer. Outcome estimates were determined both by the Kaplan-Meier and a competing risk method. In- or exclusion of contralateral breast cancer or non-disease related death in the definition of recurrent disease or survival significantly affects estimated outcome probability. The magnitude of this finding was dependent on patient-, tumour-, and treatment characteristics. Knowledge of the contribution of non-disease related death or contralateral breast cancer to estimated recurrent disease rate and overall death rate is indispensable for a correct interpretation and comparison of outcome analyses.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Influence of survival definitions on estimated outcome probability in breast cancer patients 50 years or less of age (A), and over 70 years of age (B). Both by Kaplan–Meier method (solid line) and competing risk analysis (dotted line). DSS: disease specific survival; OS: overall survival; DFI: disease free interval; DFS: disease free survival. Contralateral breast cancer was ignored in the definition of relapse.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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