Conditional survival of 56,268 patients with breast cancer.

Background: Survival rates calculated from the date of diagnosis may not be predictive of future outcome for patients who have already survived several years after diagnosis. Conditional survival rates are more informative clinically because they take into account survival after diagnosis.

Methods: Conditional relative survival rates were calculated by the life-table method using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute.

Results: Survival rates up to 8 years for patients having survived 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 years after diagnosis are presented by stage of disease for 56,268 women who were diagnosed as having invasive breast cancer from 1983 to 1987.

Conclusions: Women with Stage IV breast cancer had a better survival as they moved further in time from their diagnosis. Survival rates did not improve for those with Stage I and II disease regardless of the number of years they survived after diagnosis.