THURSDAY, June 15, 2023 (HealthDay News) — For women with early invasive breast cancer, crude annual mortality rates and risks decreased with increasing calendar periods, according to a study published online June 13 in The BMJ.

Carolyn Taylor, B.M., B.Ch., D.Phil., from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and 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. Data were included for 512,447 women registered with early invasive breast cancer in England during January 1993 to December 2015 from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service.

The researchers found that the crude annual breast cancer mortality rate was highest during the five 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 five-year breast cancer mortality risk was 14.4 and 4.9 percent 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. The cumulative five-year breast cancer mortality risk varied substantially for women with different characteristics; among those with a diagnosis during 2010 to 2015, the risk was <3 percent for 62.8 percent of women and ≥20 percent for 4.6 percent of women.

“Our findings can be used to reassure most women treated for early breast cancer that they are likely to become long term survivors,” the authors write. “They can also be used to identify the groups of women for whom the risk of breast cancer mortality remains substantial.”

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