Cervical cancer: Age at registration and age at death

The 5-year survival of women with localized (early-stage) cervical cancer is much higher than for women with non-localized (late-stage) cancer, but women with localized cancer tend also to be younger than those with advanced cancer. A new method of presenting the long-term survival is suggested, and the registrations of cervical cancers in South Wales are analysed in terms of average age at registration and average age at death. The observed average age at death was very close to 59 years regardless of stage (and age) at diagnosis, and calculations of expected ages at death of the whole populations suggest that more than half the advantage in survival shown by early stage cancers over late stage cancers is due to diagnosis of the former in younger women.