Survival among adolescents and young adults with cancer in Germany and the United States: An international comparison
A partir des données de onze registres allemands et américains des cancers, cette étude analyse et compare, pour ces deux pays, la survie des patients adolescents ou jeunes adultes atteints de cancer, sur la période 2002-2006
Serious concern arose in the scientific literature about the state of and progress in cancer survival among adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients in the recent years. We provide an up-to-date international comparison of survival among AYA patients. Using population-based cancer data from 11 German cancer registries and the SEER Program of the United States (covering populations of 39 and 33 million people, respectively), standardized tumor group classifications, period analysis and modeling, we compared the 5-year relative survival of AYA patients in the age groups 15–29 and 30–39 to survival seen among adults aged 40–49 for the 2002–2006 period. Additionally, we also provide an age-specific survival comparison between the two countries. In 2002–2006, for the overwhelming majority of the more than 30 types of cancer examined, AYA patients aged both 15–29 and 30–39 years had higher or similar survival than patients in the age group 40–49 in both countries. A numerically large and statistically significant survival deficit among AYA patients was only found for breast carcinomas in both populations, and colorectal and stomach carcinoma in the United States for the age group 15–29. Overall, results of the country-specific comparisons did not indicate systematic differences. With very few exceptions, no survival deficit between AYA patients and adults aged 40–49 years was found in either of the examined countries in the first decade of the 21st century.