The epidemiology of long- and short-term cancer survivors. A population-based cohort study exploring denominators for rehabilitation and palliative care programs

Figures & data

Table I. Proportions (%) of long- and short-term cancer survivors, in three age intervals, and according to the most frequent cancer types.

Age at diagnosis	Long-term survivors (N = 9,813)				Short-term survivors (N = 14,349)				All in the cohort (N = 24,162)
	< 40 yrs	40–59	60 plus	All	< 40 yrs	40–59	60 plus	All	< 40 yrs	40–59	60 plus	All
N	1258	3515	5040	9813	279	2448	11 622	14 349	1537	5963	16 662	24 162
(% of all)	(13%)	(36%)	(51%)	(100%)	(2%)	(17%)	(81%)	(100%)	(6%)	(25%)	(69%)	(100%)
% females	59	72	60	64	50	47	45	46	57	62	50	53
Cancer type (% of N)
Breast	11	42	28	31	14	11	6	7	12	29	13	17
Colorectal	2	8	19	13	7	10	16	15	3	9	17	14
Hemopoietic	5	3	5	4	7	4	5	5	5	4	5	5
Lung	0,2	2	3	2	9	24	21	21	2	11	16	14
Other female genital*	3	8	8	8	3	5	4	5	3	7	6	6
Prostate	0	2	13	7	0	2	9	8	0	2	10	8
Other**	79	35	24	35	61	44	37	39	76	39	33	37
% females in “other”	52	47	42	47	38	33	45	43	50	41	44	44

*cervical cancer not included.

**other (N = 9,047): melanoma (1240), brain (372), head and neck (907), thyroid (135), stomach (457), pancreas (698), oth_GI/liver (946), kidney (482), urothelial (752), cervix (424), other male genital (356), sarcomas (200), secundary (1362), unspec (422), very_rare (294).

Table II. Median age at the time of the cancer diagnosis for long- and short-term survivors, 2- and 5-years crude survival, and percentages of short-term survivors, who died less than 2 years after TOCD.

Cancer type	Survivors’ age**		The cohort’s 2- and 5-years survival (%)		Short-term survivors, dead before 2 years	Number of patients
	Short-term	Long-term	2-yrs	5-yrs	%	Short-term	Long-term
Breast	72	58	89	75	45	1030	3024
Colorectal	75	69	54	38	74	2104	1266
Other female genital	71	62	67	53	70	652	736
Prostate	76	71	64	38	57	1150	693
Head and neck	66	59	68	51	65	444	463
Hemopoietic	74	63	57	36	67	739	415
Undefined primary	73	52	37	28	88	977	385
Cervical	72	41	79	68	67	136	288
Lung	69	63	14	7	92	3068	238
Urothelial	74	67	43	30	81	528	224
Kidney	72	58	48	35	80	315	167
Other gastrointest./liver	72	64	18	11	92	1248	155
Pancreas	72	56	5	3	97	680	18
Other*	69	46	66	58	81	1278	1741
All	72	60	54	41	78	14 349	9813

*other (N = 3019): melanoma (1240), unspecifed (422), brain (372), other male genital (356), rare cancers (294), sarcomas (200), thyroid (135).

**survivors’ median age at the time of the cancer diagnosis (TOCD).

Figure 1. Age at the time of the cancer diagnosis for long- and short-term survivors.

Oth-fem-gen, other female genital; oth_GI/liver, gastrointestinal cancer other than colorectal cancer; undef_prim, undefined primary cancers.

Figure 2. The proportions of patients receiving chemotherapy (CT) according to survivor status and in three different age categories.

Figure 3. Two generic trajectories for cancer care to enter for newly diagnosed cancer patients. The model of two generic trajectories for cancer care, with the numbers from our cohort applied. At the time of the cancer diagnosis, 54% (cohort’s 2-years survival) of the patients would enter the “rehabilitation trajectory” and 46% (100–2-years survival) the “palliative care” trajectory. Within 2–5 years, 13% (2–5 year survival) of patients would then have to move from the rehabilitation to the palliative care trajectory, most likely due to recurrence. Rehabilitation programs should target patients in the upper trajectory. Palliative care initiatives, either alone or concomitant with cancer treatment, should target patients in the lower trajectory.