For women with early invasive breast cancer, crude annual mortality rates and risks decreased with increasing calendar periods, according to a study published in BMJ. Carolyn Taylor, BM, BCh, DPhil, colleagues described long-term breast cancer mortality among women with a past and recent diagnosis of breast cancer in a population-based observational cohort study (N=512,447). The crude annual breast cancer mortality rate was highest during the 5 years after diagnosis and then decreased for women with a diagnosis made in each of 1993-1999, 2000-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2015 periods. Crude annual breast cancer mortality rates and risks decreased with increasing calendar period for any given time since diagnosis. The crude 5-year breast cancer mortality risk was 14.4% and 4.9% for women with a diagnosis in 1993-1999 and 2010-2015, respectively. In nearly every patient group, adjusted annual breast cancer mortality rates decreased with increasing calendar period, by a factor of about three and about two in estrogen receptor positive and negative disease, respectively.
