posted on 2018-01-23, 10:28authored byAnna Plym, Hannah Bower, Irma Fredriksson, Lars Holmberg, Paul C. Lambert, Mats Lambe
Background
Breast cancer can negatively influence working life, but it is unclear how many working years
women with breast cancer can expect to lose.
Methods
Women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1997 and 2012 were identified in the Breast
Cancer Data Base Sweden (N=19,661), together with breast cancer-free comparison women
(N=81,303). Using flexible parametric survival modelling, the loss in working years was
calculated as the difference in the remaining years in the work force between women with and
without breast cancer.
Results
Women aged 50 years at diagnosis with stage I disease lost on average 0.5 years (95% CI,
0.2–0.7) of their remaining working time; the corresponding estimates were 0.9 years (0.5–
1.2) in stage II, 2.5 years (1.9–3.1) in stage III, and 8.1 years (6.5–9.7) in stage IV. Women
with in-situ breast cancer did not lose any working years. The strongest treatment determinant
was axillary lymph node dissection.
Conclusion
We found a loss in working years not only in late, but also in early stage breast cancer.
Although it is reassuring that some groups had no or only a modest work loss, the economic
consequences for society are considerable given the large number of women annually
diagnosed with breast cancer.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (521-2012-
3047), the Swedish Cancer Society (14-0324) and the Swedish Breast Cancer Association
(BRO). We also thank the Breast Cancer Quality Register steering groups in Stockholm,
Uppsala-Örebro and the Northern region for providing data for this study.
History
Citation
British Journal of Cancer, 2018, 1–6
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES/School of Medicine/Department of Health Sciences
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