Cancer Deaths May Be Undercounted
Cancer Deaths May Be Undercounted
Many Attributed to Surgery, Other Causes
July 16, 2002 -- The number of people who die of cancer each year may actually be much higher than thought. A new report claims that if all deaths from cancer were properly categorized, overall cancer death rates would rise by about 1%, or about 5,500 deaths.
Researchers and government agencies often rely on information about cancer death rates to measure progress in the fight against the disease. But researchers say deaths from cancer treatments are often not listed as "cancer deaths."
Currently, researchers consider deaths that happen within 30 days of surgery to be caused by the surgery rather than the cancer that prompted it.
Researchers say that has created a system in which more than two out of five deaths that occur within a month of cancer surgery are considered treatment related and not attributed to cancer. The study is published in the July 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
When the researchers looked at more than 4,000 deaths in people with cancer, they found that 41% were attributed to a cause other than cancer. The proportion of deaths not attributed to cancer ranged from 13% among cervical cancers to 81% among laryngeal cancers.
Study researchers H. Gilbert Welch, MD, and William C. Black, MD, of Dartmouth Medical School say that this trend of misclassifying deaths is particularly common among cancers that are now being detected and treated much earlier, such as breast and prostate cancers. The study found 59% of breast cancer deaths and 75% of prostate cancer deaths that occurred within one month of cancer-related surgery were not attributed to the underlying cancer.
The researchers say that the current system of classifying cancer deaths does not allow us to best use the information to make judgments about progress against cancer. A broader system of classification should be adopted that includes all deaths within one month of surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy as attributable to the cancer that initiated the treatment.
But in an editorial that accompanies the study, Colin B. Begg, PhD, and Deborah Schrag, MD, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, say changing the way cancer-related deaths are classified may create more inaccuracies.
The editorialists argue that deaths occur suddenly and unpredictably, especially among older patients, and many deaths have multiple causes. Therefore, they write, attributing the cause of death to one disease does not recognize the complexity of the issue.
Cancer Deaths May Be Undercounted
Many Attributed to Surgery, Other Causes
July 16, 2002 -- The number of people who die of cancer each year may actually be much higher than thought. A new report claims that if all deaths from cancer were properly categorized, overall cancer death rates would rise by about 1%, or about 5,500 deaths.
Researchers and government agencies often rely on information about cancer death rates to measure progress in the fight against the disease. But researchers say deaths from cancer treatments are often not listed as "cancer deaths."
Currently, researchers consider deaths that happen within 30 days of surgery to be caused by the surgery rather than the cancer that prompted it.
Researchers say that has created a system in which more than two out of five deaths that occur within a month of cancer surgery are considered treatment related and not attributed to cancer. The study is published in the July 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
When the researchers looked at more than 4,000 deaths in people with cancer, they found that 41% were attributed to a cause other than cancer. The proportion of deaths not attributed to cancer ranged from 13% among cervical cancers to 81% among laryngeal cancers.
Study researchers H. Gilbert Welch, MD, and William C. Black, MD, of Dartmouth Medical School say that this trend of misclassifying deaths is particularly common among cancers that are now being detected and treated much earlier, such as breast and prostate cancers. The study found 59% of breast cancer deaths and 75% of prostate cancer deaths that occurred within one month of cancer-related surgery were not attributed to the underlying cancer.
The researchers say that the current system of classifying cancer deaths does not allow us to best use the information to make judgments about progress against cancer. A broader system of classification should be adopted that includes all deaths within one month of surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy as attributable to the cancer that initiated the treatment.
But in an editorial that accompanies the study, Colin B. Begg, PhD, and Deborah Schrag, MD, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, say changing the way cancer-related deaths are classified may create more inaccuracies.
The editorialists argue that deaths occur suddenly and unpredictably, especially among older patients, and many deaths have multiple causes. Therefore, they write, attributing the cause of death to one disease does not recognize the complexity of the issue.