A computer program for period analysis of cancer patient survival

Monitoring of long-term survival rates, which is now routinely performed by many cancer registries throughout the world, should be as up-to-date as possible. A few years ago, a new method of survival analysis, denoted period analysis, has been proposed which provides more up-to-date estimates of long-term survival rates than traditional survival analysis by exclusively reflecting the survival experience of patients within a recent calendar period. However, application of this method has so far been hindered by the lack of pertinent computer programs. In this paper, we present a simple and easy-to-use computer program (SAS macro) that enables one to carry out period analysis (as well as conventional analysis) of both absolute and relative survival rates with the type of data commonly available in population-based cancer registries. We illustrate application of the program with examples from the nationwide Finnish Cancer Registry.