Factors associated with late risks of breast cancer-specific mortality in the SEER registry

Most reports describing the risk of late relapse in breast cancer have been based on selected patients enrolled into clinical trials. Analysis of the SEER registry (1990-2005) investigated late (≥ 5 years) breast cancer-specific mortality in the general population. Of all BC deaths, the proportion that occurred after 5 years was 65% for HR-positive BC versus 28% for HR-negative BC (p<0.001). The risks of BCSM conditional on having survived 5 years for both HR-positive and HR-negative BC depended on T-N status, age, and year of diagnosis. In HR-positive BC, the risks also depended on race and grade.