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Using all Tumors Matching Selection Criteria in Survival

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Choosing All Tumors Matching Selection Criteria / One Tumor Per Life Page on the Survival Selection tab may result in more than one tumor for an individual being included in the analysis. All other Multiple Primary Selection for Survival Sessions options reduce the tumors included in the analysis to, at most, one tumor per individual. Even with the All Tumors Matching Selection Criteria / One Tumor Per Life Page option, a person will not contribute more than one tumor diagnosis to a single life page.

However, different tumors for an individual may contribute to separate life pages. Only the first tumor for an individual that could contribute to a given life page will be included in that life page.

Examples Using Primary Matching Selection Criteria / One Tumor Per Life Page

Consider a person with a breast cancer primary in 2005 and a lung cancer primary in 2008. If these 2 tumors pass the other selection criteria and the statistics are stratified by cancer site, the breast cancer would contribute to the All sites combined and Breast life pages. The lung cancer would contribute to the Lung life page only. This differs from the First Primary Matching Selection Criteria option which only includes at most one tumor from each person. In this case the breast cancer would be included in the All sites combined and Breast life pages. The lung cancer would be excluded from the analysis.

Additional Examples

For a patient with 3 primaries: 1st – Lung/2003, 2nd – Breast/2005, and 3rd – Breast/2008

Selecting Year of Diagnosis 2003-2010 Stratified by Cancer Site

 Tumors Contributing to 2003-2010

MP Option Tumors Selected All Sites Page Lung Page Breast Page
All Tumors Matching Criteria 1st, 2nd, 3rd 1st 1st 2nd
First Primary Only 1st 1st 1st none
First Primary Matching Criteria 1st 1st 1st none

Selecting Year of Diagnosis 2003-2010 Stratified by Cancer Site

Contributing to 2003-2006

Contributing to 2007-2010

MP Option

Tumors Selected

All Sites

Lung

Breast

All Sites

Lung

Breast

All Tumors Marching Criteria 1st, 2nd, 3rd 1st 1st 2nd 3rd none 3rd
First Primary Only 1st 1st 1st none none none none
First Primary Marching Criteria 1st 1st 1st none none none none

Selecting Year of Diagnosis 2003-2010 Stratified by Cancer Site

 Tumors Contributing to 2003-2010

MP Option Tumors Selected All Sites Page Lung Page Breast Page
All Tumors Marching Criteria 3rd 3rd none 3rd
First Primary Only none none none none
First Primary Matching Criteria 3rd 3rd none 3rd

Period Survival and Age Standardized Statistics

Keep in mind that age-standardized statistics and period statistics are created from multiple contributing life pages.  So, if Period Survival is selected along with the All Tumors Matching Selection Criteria / One Tumor Per Life Page option, then a person that has a tumor in 2010 and another in 2007 would contribute each tumor to multiple contributing life tables. In other words: 

  • The 2010 tumor would be in the 0-1 year survival.
  • The 2009-2011 cases would be in the 1-2 year survival. 
  • The 2008-2010 cases and the 2007 cases would be in the 2-3 year survival.
  • The 2007-2009 cases would be in the the 3-4 year.
  • The 2006-2008 cases would be in the 4-5 year.

 So, both tumors from that person would actually contribute to the 5-year period estimate (one statistic).

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