Time-to-cure and cure proportion in solid cancers in France. A population based study

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Epidemiology
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Cure proportion (P) and time-to-cure (TTC) are critical metrics in cancer care for patients, clinicians, and policymakers.
• A recent definition of TTC as the time to reach 95% probability of cure was applied.
• This study provides the first estimation of TTC from a large national cancer database.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the cure proportion (P) and time-to-cure (TTC) for various solid tumors using a large French cancer registry database.
• To analyze P and TTC based on cancer site, sex, and age at diagnosis.
• To provide data that could improve insurance and credit access for cancer survivors.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 335,358 solid tumors diagnosed between 1995 and 2009 across 27 French registries.
• Employed a flexible parametric net survival cure model to estimate P and TTC.
• Assumed cure when excess mortality rate was ≤0.05.

Main Results:

• TTC was ≤5 years with P >80% for skin melanoma, thyroid, and testis cancers.
• TTC was 0 for testis cancer in men <55 and thyroid cancer in men <45/women <65.
• TTC ranged from 5-10 years for most digestive and gynecologic cancers (excluding small intestine and breast), and ≥10 years for prostate, breast, and urinary tract cancers.
• Cure proportion varied significantly by age and sex, e.g., 37-79% for urinary tract, 72-88% for prostate/breast, 4-16% for pancreatic, and 47-62% for colorectal cancer.

Conclusions:

• Time-to-cure was estimated for the first time using a large national database and individual cure probabilities.
• TTC was 0 for younger patients with testis or thyroid cancer and generally under 12 years for most cancer sites.
• These findings can aid in improving financial services access for cancer survivors beyond their estimated TTC.