Trends in survival of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients in Germany and the USA in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Authors; Authors and ...
Pulte et al. Journal of Hematology & Oncology (2016) 9:28 DOI 10.1186/s13045-016-0257-2
RESEARCH
Open Access
Trends in survival of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients in Germany and the USA in the first decade of the twenty-first century Dianne Pulte1,2*, Felipe A. Castro1, Lina Jansen1, Sabine Luttmann3, Bernd Holleczek4, Alice Nennecke5, Meike Ressing6, Alexander Katalinic7, Hermann Brenner1,8,9 and GEKID Cancer Survival Working Group
Abstract Background: Recent population-based studies in the United States of America (USA) and other countries have shown improvements in survival for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) diagnosed in the early twenty-first century. Here, we examine the survival for patients diagnosed with CLL in Germany in 1997–2011. Methods: Data were extracted from 12 cancer registries in Germany and compared to the data from the USA. Period analysis was used to estimate 5- and 10-year relative survival (RS). Results: Five- and 10-year RS estimates in 2009–2011 of 80.2 and 59.5 %, respectively, in Germany and 82.4 and 64.7 %, respectively, in the USA were observed. Overall, 5-year RS increased significantly in Germany and the difference compared to the survival in the USA which slightly decreased between 2003–2005 and 2009– 2011. However, age-specific analyses showed persistently higher survival for all ages except for 15–44 in the USA. In general, survival decreased with age, but the age-related disparity was small for patients younger than 75. In both countries, 5-year RS was >80 % for patients less than 75 years of age but
