Survival statistics are of great interest to clinicians, researchers, patients, and policy makers. Numerous methods and measures of cancer survival for cancer registry data have been developed, but not all are well known or in common use. The Surveillance Research Program within the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (NCI) is pleased to announce the publication of Cancer Survival From a Policy and Clinical Perspective:  U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, 1975-2010External Web Site Policy in Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs (No. 49: November 2014). The papers in the monograph aim to introduce these cancer registry survival measures to a broad audience. To make the measures more accessible, the authors minimize technical language, provide explanations, suggest when to use the measures, and describe caveats for their interpretation.

The monograph’s focus is on methods implemented in SEER*Stat that could be readily used with cancer registry data, and on illustrating which survival measures should be used for specific purposes:  research and policy versus prognosis and individual decision making. The overview paper in the monograph presents up-to-date survival estimates for selected cancers sorted by these purposes. Because different survival statistics answer different questions, both the producers and the end-users of cancer survival measures need to understand how to select and interpret the most appropriate statistic to answer the question of interest.

A single printed copy of the monograph may be ordered online from the NCI Publications Locator, while supplies last.