Background: The characteristics of a population based series of 3,066 women diagnosed with breast cancer collected by the Cancer Registry of Zaragoza, Spain from 1960 to 1990 are herein described. Gross short and long term survival, as well as specific survival were estimated according to age at diagnosis, tumor stage and the period in which the patient was diagnosed.
Methods: Every patient was followed up to verification of death or to the latest information available up to January 1, 1991. Diagnosis specified in writing in the clinical history and support by surgical or anatomopathologic reports were required. The data concerning place and site of residence and the vital status of the cases were verified by the municipal and civil registries, death certificates and burial registries. The survival curves were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and short and long term survival, by age and tumor stage at diagnosis and the diagnostic period were also evaluated.
Results: Gross survival was estimated as 89.1% in the first year, 50.9% at 5 years, and 34.7%, 28.4% and 20.0% at 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, respectively. Survival at 5 years according to TNM clinical stage classification (UICC-AJC 1978) was 90% for stage I, 69.5% for stage II, 44.6% for stage III and 20.6% for stage IV. The cases diagnosed between 1980 and 1990 presented better survival than those previously diagnosed. The differences were statistically significant in all the cases (p < 0.001, log-rank test).
Conclusions: A slight improvement has been observed in the survival of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Zaragoza, Spain during the study period. Despite of that fact, the survival rates were worse than those observed in other countries with similar socioeconomic development.