Original Scientific ArticlesPancreatic cancer: a report of treatment and survival trends for 100,313 patients diagnosed from 1985–1995, using the National Cancer Database1
Section snippets
Methods
Seven annual requests for data on pancreatic cancer were issued by the NCDB from 1989 through 1995 to approximately 1,340 hospitals with programs approved by the Commission on Cancer, as well as to 760 other hospitals, central and state registries, and software suppliers. Data on 103,720 patients with pancreatic cancer diagnosed from 1985–1995 were voluntarily submitted using standardized definitions, instructions, and data report formats.
The methodology of the NCDB has been described elsewhere.
Age, anatomic site, grade, and location of treatment
The distribution of pancreatic adenocarcinoma for 100,313 patients by AJCC combined stage according to age and anatomic site is shown in Table 1. Also presented in this table is the ratio of the number of patients with resectable disease confined to the pancreas (Stage I) to the number of those with metastatic disease (Stage IV). The peak age of occurrence was 70 to 79 years. Only 6% of all patients were less than 50 years of age, and 18% were over 80 years at the time of presentation. The
Discussion
The data collected for this study represent a convenient sample of voluntarily submitted patient information. So, possible limitations in the representativeness of the data must be kept in mind. A recent analysis of the NCDB8 concluded that it is most representative of cancer patients who receive definitive diagnosis or treatment at a US hospital. It is less likely to be representative of patients who had disease diagnosed or treated outside of a hospital environment.
Despite the availability of
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No competing interests declared.